


A Lesson In Triad Romantics

by dolly_dagger87



Series: A Series of Romantic Lessons [4]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-14 02:39:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 24
Words: 31,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11773773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dolly_dagger87/pseuds/dolly_dagger87
Summary: Triad: A Threesome relationship that involves sex and emotional connection.Also harder than it seems, but Donald Malarkey believes somehow worth it in the end. A companion toA Lesson in Summer Romantics.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This Fic contains underage sex between two/three under age males, and homophobia by a paternal figure.

“Waiting on your boyfriend,” Don said as he walked towards the cabin, fishing pole in one hand and tackle box in the other. He wasn’t teasing, not the way Alex did; it was more like a statement of fact. That didn’t stop the blush that formed on Roe’s cheeks from spreading all the way towards his ears. Roe gave a shaky nod and Don smiled in spite of the fact that he still felt like he’d had the shit kicked out of him. He couldn’t be mad at this kid even if he wanted to be. He remembered being fifteen. He remembered when even the suggestion of sex made him turn as red as his hair. He remembered that summer so fondly even now, even when it hurt. So he could hardly begrudge Roe the same. Young love was cute and Roe wore it that way. 

He made to walk past Roe and head into the cabin so he could clean his lures and pretend to be asleep by the the time his boyfriends found their way back to the cabin. He’d almost made it inside to his self pity party of one. He was opening the door when he heard Roe say his name. He turned to look at the kid, the blush was gone but a visible uncertainty had taken its place. 

“Are you and Muck having fight…” he trailed off, biting his lip. “Or you and Penkala? Honestly, I can’t tell who you’re in a relationship with, but you look like you’ve lost a fight.” 

“Both,” Don said. He realized as he said the word that it was the first time that he’d admitted that out loud. It was the first time that he’d acknowledged to anyone outside of what that they had that they had it. He hadn't told his mother. Couldn't figure out to tell his friends back home. It was one thing to be gay or have a boyfriend. Two boyfriends, that was something else. 

He couldn’t even bring himself to use the word relationship in his own head and that there was probably the root of their problems. Sure there was Alex’s jealous streak and somewhat shocking inferiority complex. There was also Skip’s flair of overcompensation and his unrealistic optimism. But didn’t that all revolve around the fucked up of core that was Don’s inability to vocalize damn near anything? 

Roe’s eyes were wide when Don looked at him. “Oh. That’s...um...that’s a lot.” Yeah, to a boy with his first boyfriend, it probably did feel that way.

“You’re telling me.” It was the first time it had really felt that way, but it did feel like a lot. He remembered with a sickening feeling how powerfully he’d railed against Alex’s insecurity that it was one day going to end up just being Don and Skip. At the time he’d found it utterly ridiculous that such a thought could occur to Alex. Something would be so fundamentally missing without him. How could he imagine that they would carry on. But he was standing on the porch with Roe and he could feel that same insecurity creeping into his chest. There was difference, because Don was the last one invited to the party. 

There had been a time when the party had gone on quite wonderfully without him. Not that many summers ago it had been Skip and Alex, party of two. 

“They probably didn’t do it on purpose,” Roe said, pulling Don out of self-pity. “I don’t think Muck and Penkala would make anyone feel like shit on purpose.”

“I don’t know, kid. You give Penk a little too much credit,” Don said, because for some reason most of his anger right now was being directed at Alex. Probably because of the hickey the size of a half dollar that Skip was just barely covering with a t-shirt.

“Maybe, but he wouldn’t do it to you.” Roe sounded very certain. “Maybe if you told them you were feeling left out?”

“Look at you,” Don remarked, ruffing the kid’s hair. “Two weeks into your first relationship and you’ve already got sage relationship wisdom.”

Roe shrugged.

“Keep it up and you and Babe are going places, and I don’t just mean the boat dock.”

Roe blushed and Don was reminded of how embarrassed he had been the first time Buck called them out for sneaking out. He remembered how Buck had read Skip and Alex the riot act. He wasn’t going to do that Babe. He wasn’t going to do Roe the disservice of assuming that because Roe had started the summer less experienced meant that he was just following along or getting taken advantage of. Sure Roe was young but that didn’t mean he didn’t know what he wanted.

So he wasn’t going to underestimate Roe. Tease him, sure, but he was going treat him like the adult he was growing into.

“Have fun tonight,” Don said as he pulled the door open. “Promise we’ll have all the yellin’ and screamin’ out of our system by the time you get back.”

As he sat down on his bed and started removing his lure from the line he could see Roe lingering on the porch, probably trying to decide if Don should be left alone right now. The decision was made for him though when he heard Alex’s booming voice.

“Hey Roe, look who we found. Decided we’d walk him down here just in case he got lost.”

Don pulled his pliers out of his tackle box and squared his shoulders.


	2. One

Like everyone else at Camp Igintli, Don had arrived there as a wide eyed fifteen year old, a little drunk on the joy of being away from his parents for the first time. Unlike everyone else, he was months away from his sixteenth birthday. ‘Practically a man now, Helen,’ as his Uncle Charlie had put it when he talked his mother into sending him to the other side of the country. He was a growing boy, needed to be around kids his own age and he also overheard that there was some concern he was becoming depressed. How you were not supposed to feel depressed after your dad up and took off leaving your mother teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, no one had explained. So the way his uncle saw it, it was better to send him to summer camp then to a shrink. So his uncle cut the check and bought him a new fishing pole and packed him off to summer camp.

And Don had to agree that even though he’d just gotten there, his uncle was probably right. He probably was depressed but how was he not supposed to feel weird about this. His dad just never came home from work one day. And Don wished that he could blame all of this on his dad; he was an easy villain here and no one would think less of him if he did. But it started before that. It started well before that. It started the summer that his uncle Charlie, the same uncle that looked out for him and bought him his fishing pole, made a comment about queers. See, every kid has those moments when you find out that the adults you thought you knew weren’t really as great as you thought. Don just wish both of his male role models hadn’t picked the same month to let him down.

But here he was at summer camp, the place that was supposed to make all of that better. He pulled his duffel up on his shoulder as he walked down the path towards his cabin. They had seemed a bit overwhelmed at the front so he’d told the guy he could handle it on his own. When he reached cabin three, he took a deep breath and walked up the stairs. Inside there were four beds, two on each wall and the one just inside the door to the right was a tall blond boy in a navy baseball cap, tossing a baseball up in the air and catching it in his glove.

“Hey,” he said, sitting up when the door closing behind Don got his attention. “You must be Malarkey.”

Don nodded.

“Nice to meet ya,” the boy said, holding out his hand not in a baseball glove. “I’m Buck Compton, your cabin leader.”

“Nice to meet you,” Don said, shaking Buck’s hand.

“Well, welcome to your home away from home,” Buck said, gesturing around the room. “We’ll probably put you in bed behind me, separating Muck and Penk has never really worked for anyone.”

Don tried to nod like he knew what was going on but it must have showed on his face that he didn’t.

“Muck and Penkala are the other two that live in this cabin, they’re pretty attached.” Buck said and again Don was lost as to what that meant.

Rather than explain Buck just plowed on. “See you brought your own fishing gear. You like fishing?”

“Yeah,” Don replied, “my dad used to take me out before…” he stopped before he started pouring out his sob story to someone he just met. “When I was younger.”

He saw something like pity cross Buck’s face but he seemed to push through it. “Well, we’ll have to go out after dinner in the evening and see if we can catch something. Martin, the leader in cabin two, always tries to get his group into fishing. He’ll be glad to have someone that’s actually interested.”

Don had planned to respond, to tell Buck that he’d like to go, but then the door crashed open and boys tripped over each other into the room. The taller of the two had dark messy hair and a somewhat crooked smile. The other one, about a head shorter pushed his dirty blonde hair out of his eyes before he addressed the room. “Did you miss us Buck? I missed us.”

Buck’s answering smile was fond and spoke a familiarity with the pair. “You know Muck, I tried, I really did, but then fall ball started and honestly I just didn’t have the time.”

“You know, I don’t think you did at all and that hurts, Buck. It really hurts.” Muck placed his hand over his chest as if to demonstrate where exactly it hurt him.

Buck shook his head before he gestured to the pair. “Muck, Penk, this is Malarkey. Be nice.”

“Nice? We are always nice. I resent the implication that we are not nice,” Muck said, tossing his duffel on the bed so hard it gave a little bounce.

“Jesus Christ,” Penk muttered, speaking for the first time and Don figured he let Muck do a lot of the talking. Which, why not, Muck seemed more than willing to do it. “Ignore him.He got the Red Bull before I found him. He’ll be more human when it wears off.”

Don nodded because Penk seem like a qualified expert in Muck’s impulse control.

“Welcome to camp,” Penk said, clapping him on the shoulder as he moved to his bed across from Don’s.

“Thanks,” Don replied and he figured that all things considered, he could have ended up with worse roommates.


	3. Two

Over the course of the next week that thought would turn out to almost be a prophecy as Don met his fellow campers. It shouldn’t have surprised him that they were all a little rough around the edges. After all, all of their parents had agreed to abdicate their responsibilities to strangers. Don could understand maybe why Muck’s mother had needed a break and Penk had just shrugged off the question when asked. Buck had said his mother had insisted that he take a break from baseball. A few weeks into the summer it became obvious that Buck wanted no such thing. It was also clear that Buck was going places with baseball, even if no one else in camp had the skills to follow him there. His whole demeanor changed when he crouched behind home plate and pulled the mask down over his face. Even though the other kids were obviously not on his level.

Speaking of the other kids, they were taking some getting used too. They seemed to gravitate towards cabin four since Buck seemed to be friends with the older boys in cabin. Between Welsh and Speirs, Don couldn’t quite make out who seemed to be in charge, he hoped for the sake of the two younger boys in the cabin it was Welsh. Harry Welsh had an easy way about him. He seemed game for a laugh and never seemed to lose his smile of crooked teeth. Speirs, on the other hand, would be the accompanying picture to surly in the dictionary. While Buck and Welsh had a come ask me for help vibe, Speirs had an enter if you dare vibe. Don was pretty sure that if on fire, he wouldn’t go to Speirs for help. He pitied anyone that had to live with him. He didn’t think he was going to end up best and dearest friends with Floyd Talbert and Charles Grant, mostly because they could turn very disagreeable at times, but he still felt sorry for them.

Tab, as everyone seemed to call him, was the one with the personality. Of course it was a personality that had gotten him punched in the face a couple of times. Not by Don, but he could see the appeal if he was up for that sort of thing. Tab got bored easily and when he did, he’d start ribbing you to try and get a rise out of you. And normally it worked for him and that when the fights would start. Grant, on the other hand, was just loyal and a little sullen, and wasn’t going to let Tab get into anything alone. Don couldn’t figure out why out of all the people in camp, Grant had picked Tab to latch onto but maybe being stuck under one roof with him helped.

“So what are you guys doing later?” Welsh asked Buck as they walked back from the baseball field. It was just them, Welsh and Speirs. Tab and Grant had taken off like it was some kind of race.

“You’re asking because you have a suggestion,” Buck said with a smile.

“Well our youngsters can’t play poker and that seems a crime so I thought we’d get a game together.” Welsh said with a shrug.

“Yeah and let Speirs take all my money. No, thank you,” Buck said.

Speirs’ laughter even sounded ominous.

“Stop that,” Welsh said, looking at Speirs before turning back to Buck. “It’s just a friendly game for chips. Sparky’ll play nice.”

Don almost tripped over his own feet when he heard someone use a nickname for Speirs. You got nicknames from friends, like when his cabin called him Malark. The idea that Speirs and Welsh were friends was strange. And besides that, he was a little concerned about what Speirs had done to get ‘Sparky’ as a nickname.

Don’s train of thought was derailed by a commotion up ahead. When the crowd parted, consoler Winters was standing between two boys from cabin one, Toye and Guarnere and Tab and Grant. Nobody looked too worse for wear. Tab had somehow managed to get grass in his hair. 

“Jesus Christ,” Welsh said, shaking his head.

It looked as though everyone was about to start up with some wild story when Speirs spoke up. “Save it for someone that gives a damn, both of you back to the cabin now.” He started walking faster to keep up with them and even though he wasn’t speaking at them he was alternating directing his glare at each boy as they walked.

Buck nodded back to the cabin and they started walking again, but Don looked back over his shoulder to see Winters talking to the pair. Where Speirs had looked mad, Winters just seemed disappointed. Don had heard that he been the leader of cabin one before and that even though he’d been promoted, he had in Buck’s words ‘trouble letting things go.’ 

“They’re good kids,” Welsh said as they walked. “They just egg each other on. It’s like gasoline was introduced to a flame.”

“Well if that isn’t karma,” Buck replied.

Welsh shook his head, a small smile threatening to bloom into something brighter. “I have no idea what for.”

Buck laughed, “I’m sure you don’t.”

“Well,” Welsh mused. “I suppose that’s probably enough time for Sparky to have gotten the bad cop out of his system.”

“You discipline model is an inspiration to us all.” Buck said, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“Why thank you, Buck, That’s so sweet of you to say.” Welsh gave a little bow and it was impossible not to like Counselor Welsh. He always seemed game for a laugh. Speirs on the other hand...well Don doubted he’d ever get to the same place as Welsh with that one.


	4. Three

At first, he didn’t notice it. The sneaking out. He’s a sound sleeper so he’s not surprised.

But after a week or two, he noticed. At first he thought it was a one off. But once he started listening for it, he realized it’s not. Muck and Penk snuck out every night. Once he knew about it Don tried to brush it off. And in the beginning he did. But then they started becoming better friends and they included him in everything during the day, so why would they stop? In hindsight, it should have been obvious. But honestly at 15 going 16, Don had not seen this coming.

One night, he followed them because he was tired of feeling left out. When they left the cabin, the pair started heading to the baseball field. Don was honestly a little surprised what on earth was out there that was interesting; he had no idea. But that’s what he was here to find out so he hung back and followed along. He watched as they used a loose patch in the chain-link fence to get into the field. They found the spot easily, so clearly they had done this before. So Don followed after them. He wasn’t surprised to hear their hushed voices in the dugouts. By now he’d begun to suspect they’d gotten cigarettes from somewhere. He was proven spectacularly wrong when he heard a moan come from the dugout.

Don could feel the blush crawling all the way up his face to his hairline. He hadn’t even considered that that was what they were doing. So now that he knew what was going on, he should have gone back to the cabin, pulled covers over his head, so he could get some sleep and be able to look Muck and Penk in the eye in morning without blushing like mad. But he couldn’t get his feet to go along with that plan. So he stood there, leaning against the exterior of the dugout and listened.

“You really though you could keep this a secret?” Don heard Penk say. “You think I wouldn’t notice? Come on Skip, give me some credit.”

“Ah fuck, Alex,” Muck moaned, sounding breathy. And it was jarring to hear Penk’s first name after weeks of everyone, including Muck, calling him Penk. It was a reminder of how private they thought this was. That more than anything was what made Don want to run, to give them this moment. But his feet remained rooted to the spot.

“You can’t get shit by me,” Penk said. “I know you better than anyone.” 

Muck didn’t have a response, just high pitched whine, but Penk, undaunted, kept right on going. “Thought I wouldn’t notice you checking out someone else’s ass.”

And Don was honestly lost for a moment because he was pretty sure that infidelity was normally met with much more anger and a lot fewer sexual favors. But Penk just sounded smug, like he was proud of himself for figuring it out.

“Want you,” Muck said and he sounded distressed about it like he was expecting anger too.

“Know you do,” Penk responded, “but I know you think about him too.” Penk actually sounded consoling, a tone Don had never heard him use. And it was bizarre to hear it now, like a wandering eye was something that would need consoling. “Do you think about him pinning you up against the wall like this? Think he’d do that for you? Wrap his fingers around your wrists so you couldn’t touch.”

“Alex,” Muck moaned this time and it made Don blush that he now knew the difference.

“Bet he would. It’d be hot too, let someone else do all the work. I could just sit back and watch. You’re always so pretty when you come.”

“Ah, fuck, shit, Alex,” Muck gasped. And Don knew he was never going to be able to look them in the eye again.

“You close, Skip?” But Penk already knew the answer, smug as before, proving that what he said was true. He did know Muck better than anyone. “Do something for me?” Muck must have given some kind of response because Penk continued on. “Moan his name for me.”

“You want me to,” Muck started but he broke off in a moan.

“Come on, it would be hot. Just once,” Penk said, an edge of pleading to his voice.

“Fuckin’ crazy,” Muck responded and Don was inclined to agree, but he was also hoping Muck agreed because he wanted to know who it was. Who Muck and Penk had both considered sleeping with.

“But you love me, don’t you, babe?” Penk reminded him.

“I do, know I do,” and weren’t they just full of surprises. Don would never have guessed that they had collectively reached the point of love you’s and pet names. “Ah,” Muck gasped. “Fuck, shit ah, Don.”

And Don felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. They’d been talking about him. At some point, he moved before Muck started to reciprocate and started back towards the cabin. He realized he’d been running when he reached the cabin steps out of breath. He sat down on the steps, too shaken to go inside. His head was spinning. He was sure his thoughts were so loud he’d wake Buck. For some reason, he couldn’t process that Muck and Penk wanted anything to do with him. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t noticed them. Especially Muck, he flirted with everyone, except him and Penk and now that seemed like an important difference. That still didn’t help him understand what they wanted with him.

When he heard a whistling noise, he looked up to see the pair of them walking towards him. It was obvious now, what they had been doing, and Don wondered how many times he’d missed it in the past.

“You know they say people who eavesdrop never hear anything nice about themselves. Guess that’s not true for you,” Penk said and Muck hit him on the arm.

“What happened to gently?” Muck said, looking annoyed.

“Oh come on. He’s not that freaked out; he waited for us,” and Don wasn’t about to correct him. In all honesty, he was a little freaked out, but Don was more than ok with them not knowing that.

“Well, I guess you already knew that Penk was an asshole,” Muck said and casually dropped himself on the steps next to Don. He was outside Don’s personal bubble, but it still made Don stiffen slightly. “So we have loads to talk about now,” Muck added and if Don didn’t know better he would say that Muck was uncomfortable too.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Penk said as he sat down on Don’s other side. Unlike the rest of them, Penk was the picture of having his shit together. “Can we please for the sake of my sanity skip to the part where you admit you want him to fuck you?” And even though he said it in a hushed whisper, it still sounded way too loud to Don’s ears.

“Jesus Christ,” Muck muttered.

“I’m not wrong and if you would get over your own discomfort with being kinkier than your average individual you would notice that it is exactly like a year ago. I love ya, Skip. You’re my best fuckin’ friend but you do have a pattern. You make friends and then you slowly start seducing them and you know what? I didn’t need the slow seduction and I don’t think Don does either. So can we skip ahead to the boyfriends part so we can enjoy the rest of our summer of shared orgasms?”

Muck mouth dropped, clearly shocked, but Penk’s little speech had the opposite effect on Don. It was like a shot of liquid courage shot right into his veins. So that’s why, with Penk’s words making him brave, that Don pulled Skip in for a kiss. At first Muck was stiff as a board but when Don licked across Muck’s lip, he just melted.

“Look at you,” Penk whispered directly into Don’s ear. “I knew you had that in you.” What that was, Don could only guess, but it must be a good thing.

Muck pulled back, a laughing smile on his face so he must have heard Penk too.

“My turn,” Penk said, tapping Don’s knee. Don turned to face him, and no sooner had he turned around then Penk was on him. Where Muck had been soft and had let Don come to him, it was clear that Penk was in the business of taking. From the second their lips touched, Penk was pushing him back toward the step behind Don’s back. And Don had to admit that it was fun to hang on as Penk took the lead. He could see why Muck seemed fond of it.

“Fuck, you’re gonna be fun to kiss,” Penk said as he pulled away, his nose dragging along Don’s as he did so.

“If you want,” Muck said. “It’d be new to us too. I mean Penk’s had some fun without me but we’re both pretty new at this. So we’d all be figuring it out together.”

“Yeah.” Don nodded, watching as matching grins spread across Penk and Muck’s faces. And knowing that he had no idea what he was getting himself into, he was willing to figure it out with these two.


	5. Four

The first night after The Porch, as he came to think of it later, Don’s nerves set in after dinner because now he knew when they snuck out for the night, he would be expected to sneak out too. The surprising part was that when it actually came time to do the sneaking out, Don’s nerves had vanished. He just waited as he did the night before until Muck and Penk were out the door before he snuck out behind them. He’d just gotten to the bottom of the stairs and was looking for the pair he couldn’t see when he heard Penk’s voice.

“See? I told you he was braver than you thought.” The pair of them were standing between the cabins. “Come on, you two. Before Sobel catches us and kills any chance I have of getting it up from the rest of the week.”

Don watched as Muck rolled his eyes before falling into step behind Penk. Don started walking beside him and nudged his shoulder into Muck’s. “I was gonna follow,” Don said, not liking that Muck had doubted him. It seemed important that he clear that up.

“You don’t have to wait until we’ve left,” Muck said, somewhat dejectedly.

“I won’t next time,” Don said, realizing for the first time as the camp fell away behind them and they started climbing the hill, that this wasn’t going to be as easy as he thought. Relationships were naturally a minefield of hurt feelings and now they had multiplied those hurt feelings by three.

Muck’s posture seemed to relax like he was feeling lighter and Don hoped that he would always be able to do that for him. After that the mood lightened the rest of way to the archery range.

“Can you guys stop being so serious? He’s still feeling this out, Muck. Give the kid a break.” Penk said. “Can we do all the deep soul searching thing later? Or never, but right now I’d really like to make out with someone.” 

“Come on, Don. You heard him; go make out with him,” Muck said, giving him a playful shove towards Penk. Don saw it for the gesture that it was, if they were really going to be sharing then they needed to start right this minute. 

“Come here,” Penk said, pulling Don forward slightly by his belt loops. “I only bite if you ask politely.” And Don couldn’t have helped it that he blushed a little, but it was just a Penk thing to say. But Penk didn’t give him too long to feel self conscious about it as he took ahold of Don’s chin and turned him into a kiss. Just like on the steps, Penk took the lead, tracing Don’s lips before pushing his tongue into Don’s mouth. When Penk pulled his hips closer still so that Don could feel Penk hard in his shorts, he heard something almost like a whimper behind him. 

Penk broke the kiss, and Don could feel him smile against his lips. “Aww sounds like someone feels a little left out. Such a slut for attention.” 

“Am not,” Muck said, sounding and looking a little indignant when Don turned to face him.   
“Sure you are,” Penk said before he leaned in to speak into Don’s ear even though his voice was much too loud to be a whisper. “So what are we going to do with him, since he needs our attention?” 

“I don’t know,” Don stuttering in a way that hardly kept up with the mood that Penk was trying to set. But really what the hell was Don for, he did not have the first idea of what to do. 

“He let me fuck him last summer,” Penk said almost conversationally if it weren’t for the husky dip in his voice. “He’s let me do it a couple of times this summer too. Made him say your name once, didn’t even have to ask.” 

“Jesus, Alex,” Muck said, his hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. And Muck was right, it was a lot all at once. Too much too fast in so many ways, but if that’s where this was heading what was the sense in waiting? Penk had always believed in jumping right in, water right up to your head because if you were getting wet might as well go all the way. It seemed that he applied that falsity in other areas of his life as well. 

“You should see his face when I get my fingers inside him,” Penk said and Don gripped Penk’s hand that had at some point came to rest on Don’s hip. “I bet you want to see that, knew we weren’t going to have to treat you with kid gloves.” 

Something about that seemed snap Muck out of his embarrassment, or perhaps it had all be an act. An out for Don’t sake, Don was sure he’d never know which it was. But something cocky had slid back into Muck’s features. Like if Don was in, so was he. He walked over to where the two of them were standing and hooked his fingers in the belt loops of Don’s pants. “And what are you going to be doing during that?”

“You should probably suck his dick,” Penk said like that wasn’t an embarrassing thing to say at all. “He’s pretty good at it,you know,” Penk added and now Don did not know that but now that he knew it he was never going to forget. 

“Sound good to you?” Muck asked, not teasing, just asking while still tugging playfully on the belt loops of Don’t shorts. 

Don swallowed hard and he knew at least Penk could hear it. “Yeah, if you want.” 

“Oh, I want,” Muck said and Penk chuckled in his ear. 

“So what do you say we get down to orgasms?” Penk said before he nibbled slightly on Don’s ear. And that wasn’t something Don had realized he was into until then. 

Someone started pulling his camp t-shirt over his head, probably Penk because those were definitely Muck’s lips attached to his face. 

“Come on, Skip. Suck his face after I get his shirt off.” So Penk’s hands then. But honestly it was a little hard to keep track. Up until then the one make out session he'd had had involved one mouth, two hands and a girl he was pretty sure he wasn't into. Now he was working with twice that and Muck and Penk were a very good team, and soon they got Don’s shirt off. And Don really hoped that someone knew where it went, because he had no idea where it went. It gets awkward trying to get three bodies to the ground but they manage it. Don ended up with his back against the ground, and there was his t-shirt under his left shoulder. There was almost no light out here, but a light on the far enough away that it bathed them in a soft light. It was bright enough that he could see the contrast in the looks on Penk’s and Muck’s faces. Muck’s was soft like he was trying to be reassuring, and Penk’s was predatory like he’s got them right where he wants them. And since this was his idea it’s probably exactly like that. Penk made quick work with getting Muck’s pants open, and it’s clear they see romance like something they don’t have time for. Or at least Penk did, Muck’s got soft kisses for Don behind his head and along the length of his neck. 

Penk, on the other hand, seemed to understand that they are on borrowed time because he’s got Muck’s pants tucked down in a hurry. And that was the first time Don had seen a penis in a sexual situation that wasn’t his own. And if he’s honest with himself he thought when that finally happened, it would be treated with a little more fan fair. That’s not what happened, what happened was Penk digging around in his pockets for what Don could guess was lub and a condom and getting his own pants around his knees. And maybe it’s better that they didn’t make a big deal of it, because it kept Don out of his head. It allowed him to enjoy Muck kissing him while getting his pants open. It let him lose himself in the feel of Muck’s hand jerking him off. And it’s just kisses and Muck liked that until Muck broke the kiss, pulled away, and gasped ‘shit’ against Don lips. 

And Don knew that it must be something that Penk was doing that caused that reaction. Muck raked his teeth over his lip before he looked up and smiled. 

“Let's get you taken care of,” he said and Don's about to protest that he'd thought he was being taken care of just fine. But Muck’s opening his pants and that's when Don remembered Penk’s master plan of Muck getting fucked and Don's getting his dick sucked. And really who was Don to argue with that. He knew he was not very helpful when Muck started opening his pants and pulling them down just enough he could get at Don’s dick but Don's a little nervous. No one has ever seen his dick in the context of doing anything with it and he hoped it measures up to the situation. And he must because Muck doesn't seem disappointed. He pressed an open mouthed kiss to where the line of Don's hair started and continued on like that, Muck pressing open mouthed kisses against his abdomen. He paused for a moment, perhaps to give Don a chance to react to what he was about to do, before he licked Don’s dick from base to tip. 

“Shit,” Don hissed, his fingers pulling grass from the ground beneath his hands. 

Muck looked slightly pleased with himself before he took Don’s dick into his mouth. Don hissed a breath out between his teeth and was pleased to see Muck’s eyes glaze over as well in response to whatever Penk was doing. 

“Not so cocky now is he,” Penk asked, placing a hand on Muck’s shoulder. “Want to see if you can get him off before I finish getting you open?” 

Muck didn’t answer in words but it was clear when he hollowed out his cheeks that he was up for it. Don tried his best to make it a challenge and maybe he might have the next time, but this time he was no match for Muck’s determined sucking and skillful tongue. He suspected that Muck was drawing figure eights but whatever it was had him coming down Muck’s throat, his hand on Muck’s shoulder in warning, fingers just touching the tips of Penk’s. 

He’d expected laughter, but there wasn’t any, just a broken whine when Muck let Don’s soft dick fall out of his mouth. 

“I’d say it’s your turn, isn’t it?” Penk said, nearly plastering himself to Muck’s back so he could whisper in his ear. 

Muck nodded before he moaned again, probably because of something Penk did with his fingers. 

“You good?” Penk asked. He wasn’t teasing this time or trying to get Muck going. It seemed like he was genuinely asking. 

Muck rolled his hips back into Penk in reply. 

“No, come on. Use your words, say you’re good,” Penk said, still sounding more serious than he had all night. 

Muck seemed to struggle for a second before he said, “Yeah, I’m good. I’m good.” 

That seemed to be all the encouragement Penk needed before he started rummaging around with something in his shorts Don couldn’t see in the low light. 

“Come back and lean into me,” Penk said softly and it felt strangely intimate for Don to be here for this. Muck must have sensed this because as he rearranged himself so that he was on his knees, he took Don’s hand palm to palm, Muck’s finger pressing just below his knuckles. 

“Hang on,” Penk said before pressing an open mouthed kiss to the side of Muck’s neck, Don gave his hand and encouraging squeeze. The way they moved together was beautiful to watch but he didn’t feel like he was intruding because Muck kept reaching for him or bracing himself against Don’s legs. When Muck reached to start jacking himself off, Don batted his hand away and took Muck in his own hand. It was a little tricky to match a match a rhythm that he wasn’t setting but he managed it. Muck kept looking back and forth between the two of them as though he thought that one of them might disappear into thin air. 

“Come on, babe,” Penk hissed and while Muck didn’t come on command, he came shortly after. Don did his best to catch it in his hand and he mostly succeeded. He missed watching Penk come, but it must have happened because he let Muck slump forward onto Don’s chest. Don reached up with his hand not covered in come to smooth over Muck’s hair. He kissed Muck’s hair. 

“You’re comfy,” Muck said. 

“He’s more than that,” Penk said, squeezing Don’s knee. “He’s more then that.”


	6. Five

After his first attempt at eavesdropping, you would have thought that Don would have learned his lesson. That was of course not the case and the morning after his second sneak out, he found himself under the window of the cabin listening to three people talking in hushed voices but Don could tell that they rather be shouting. When he’d left to go cast a line or two, he hadn’t envisioned them getting into an argument. Buck hadn’t even been there when he left. 

“I don’t like it,” Buck said, and he was firm on this. He was using his cabin leader voice that on most days Penk would mock him for. 

Only Penk didn’t seem to find anything funny when he responded. “I really don’t think that’s your call.” 

“I don’t care what the two of you get into on your own, I really don’t. You know that. But this is different.” Buck challenged. 

“How?” Skip asked and Don could hear in his tone how pissed he was. 

“He’s younger for a start,” Buck countered and for the first time Don realised they were arguing about him. He knew Buck knew, he had enough respect for his cabin leader that he didn’t insult his intelligence. Until this moment he had believed that this respect was being returned. 

“Oh that’s bullshit. He’s only a few months younger then I am,” Skip snapped. 

“That few months makes a world of difference,” Buck responded. “He’s a year below you at school.” 

“That’s not what you’re really worried about it,” Penk replied darkly. 

Buck’s heavy sigh was audible even Don. “Don’t you think he’s a little young for you to spend the summer playing around with?”

“That’s not,” Skip sounded offended by the thought. “We wouldn’t do that.” And Don knew they wouldn’t even though he hadn’t even known them a whole summer yet. He knew that about them and he could understand the offence that Buck didn’t seem too. 

“Besides, how do you know it isn’t the other way around. Kid isn’t nearly as innocent as you think he is,” Penk said and that hurt Don’t feelings in a totally different way. He didn’t know which was worse - that Buck thought he was this young naive kid or that Penk thought he was a master at manipulation. 

“Don’t go giving him too much credit. He’s had a tough time recently and the last thing he needs is you piling on,” Buck responded and Don would never have spilled out his whole sob story to Buck if he knew he was going to use it against him later. 

“No sweat,” Skip said and he sounded just as disappointed in Buck as Don felt. Don was brought out of his trance by the cabin door opening and closing with a thud. Don saw Skip leaving the cabin so he did what he always did, he followed and caught up with Skip pretty quickly. 

“You heard,” Skip said in that same sad and disappointed tone that he had used with Buck. 

“I know it’s not like that,” Don said, figuring he should just get right into it. “What Penk said…”

“Penk says a lot of things he dosen’t mean when he’s hurt. He knows it’s not like that, I know it’s not like that. Penk’s just…” 

“Hurt,” Don finished even though he wasn’t sure he understood, he figured he would in time. 

“Yeah,” Skip nodded but Don could tell that the topic was far from settled for Skip so he wasn’t surprised when Skip spoke again. “What did Buck mean when he said you were having a tough time?”

“It’s not…” Don started, but Skip wasn’t having it. 

“No, come on. No bullshit, it’s going to be hard to be the three of us. You already heard Buck doesn’t think we’ll make it. So if this is gonna be a long term thing, something we can keep together, we are going to have to be honest with each other. It won’t work out otherwise.” 

And Don knew he was right, but standing in front of cabin four hardly feels like the place to have that conversation. So he nudged Skips arm and nodded in the direction of the swim dock. Skip seemed to take the hint and followed him. When they got there, Don leaned against the wall next to the life jackets. He was staring at his shoes trying to figure out how to start the my dad left us story, when Skip spoke first. 

“Ok, now you are starting to scare me,” Skip said. 

“It’s not…” about you he started to say but that seems like a lie, because part of it is. Part of what was going to make things tough was if his family found out that what he was doing with them. He knew it wouldn’t go over well with everyone and was scared of the unknown of how his mother will react. So he doesn’t finish what he was going to say because he’s not going to lie to Skip. So he cleared his throat and started again. “My dad left before I left for camp.” 

The look of sadness and pity that lit up Skip’s face is why he hadn’t told many people, but for the first time it felt genuine. “You’re parents are getting a divorce?”

“That would easier,” Don said, because in a way it would, dividing every other weekend between parents but it wasn’t like that. “No, he just left and doesn’t seem interested in coming back.” 

If it was possible, Skip looked sadder still and he pulled Don into a hug and Don held on tight because this was the most genuine act of comfort he’s had since his Dad didn’t come home one night. This was the first hug he’s received that seemed purely for Don’s benefit and not to comfort the other person. 

“That’s not the worst of it,” Don said, his words muffled by the fabric of Skip’s t-shirt. “They sent me camp because they’re worried I’m gay.” 

Skip’s grip was tighter for a moment, if that was possible, before he pulled back. “We don’t need you to tell them everything. You keep as many secrets from them as you want. Just don’t keep any from us ok?” 

And Don nodded because he didn’t trust his voice but he was sure he could. Skip pulled him back in for a hug and he was sure he could do that.


	7. Six

Don had always hated having a summer birthday. It meant that you didn’t get a party at school and it meant most of your friends either couldn’t be reached or were out of town for your party. So Don had gotten used to over the years not having anyone remember his birthday outside of his own family. He hadn’t told anyone at camp that he had a birthday coming up mostly because he hadn’t wanted them to feel obligated and spending time with them, especially Skip and Penk, was more than enough for Don. 

So he was more than a little surprised when Penk figured it out. He shouldn’t have been. Penk’s powers of observation were often underestimated

“Haha they came,” Penk said as he burst through the cabin door.

Skip gave a polite clap from the bed. 

“I told you I could get them,” Penk said, pointing towards Skip with box. 

“Indeed you did,” Skip said nodding, “and I’m so very sorry for doubting you.” 

“Is anybody going to tell me what’s going on?” Don said, not liking that he had been left out of something. 

“Patience, grasshopper,” Penk said, using a nickname he had picked up since they watched kung fu movies during a particularly rainy day. Apparently he had much to learn about the ways of pranking. Which made this disappointing, if Penk was teaching him then why had he been excluded from this? 

Penk, meanwhile, was unaware of Don’t disappointment as he pulled his pocket knife out of his pocket to cut the tape on the box. He opened the box with a certain amount of fanfare and once Don saw what was in the box, he could understand why Penk was excited and he was excluded. 

“Happy birthday, baby,” Penk said, brandishing a box of Twinkies. 

Don smiled at the nickname. Penk had a habit of using them in a mocking tone of voice but Don always took them as Penk’s way of showing affection and Skip seemed to take them that way too. “Where did you get those?” Don asked, his voice dancing with laughter. 

“A birthday surprise smuggled in courtesy of my dearest sister,” Penk said proudly. “And wait there’s more.” He said before digging around in the box a bit before he found a pack of blue and white striped candles and a small disposable Bic lighter. 

It turned out that Penk had charmed the family that owned the farm next door and they had agreed to let him send a box to their house to his best friend could have a surprise for his birthday. While Skip didn’t doubt the trustworthiness of the family, he’d been very skeptical about Penk’s ability to get all the way to the farm and back without getting caught with a box that contained not only the Twinkies which would have cost him a privilege and a lighter that might have gotten him sent home. You didn’t have to be here long to hear the story of Speirs and the lighter that no one had seen but Sobel was convinced was there. But somehow Penk had managed it all for Don’s benefit. 

“I have to have some secrets,” Penk argued as he opened one of the Twinkies. “You can’t know all my tricks.” He removed a Twinkie and set it on the box. He removed another Twinkie and repeated the process with the second Twinkie. Then he tore open the candles and placed two in each Twinkies and then clicked the cheap lighter several times until it lit. He lit each of the candles and Skip started singing in an aggregated off key fashion and Penk joined him even though it was more subdued. 

Don laughed because when Skip got like this it was hard not to. 

“Alright, babe. Blow out your candles and make a wish damn it. I didn’t do all that work for you not to make a wish.” 

Don shook his head before he did what Penk requested. 

_I wish we’ll still be like this next year._

“Don’t tell us,” Penk said and Don was about to reply when Buck opened the door to the cabin. 

“I don’t want to know,” Buck said, shaking his head. “I didn’t see any of this.” 

“Fair enough,” Penk said, he dug another pack of Twinkies out of the box. 

Buck laughed. “Happy birthday, kid.” Buck replied as he headed towards his bed. 

“Would you like a Twinkie?” Don said, turning to Buck. “A clean one as these with the blue wax are clearly mine.” 

“Well what kind of cabin leader would I be if I didn’t help you dispose of the evidence of your crime?”

Don smiled and handed Buck an unwrapped Twinkie. 

“How on earth did you settle on Twinkies?” Buck asked, tearing open the plastic wrapping. “Surely we could have managed better for Malark’s sixteenth birthday?” 

“They’re Don’s favorite,” Penk commented casually as he licked the filling off the plastic wrapper. 

Don smiled and ducked his head to look at his wax covered Twinkies to hide his face. He couldn’t remember telling anyone that, but he must have and Penk had lodged that information away. Something about that touched Don, because he hadn’t expected Penk to be the sentimental one of the pair of them. But here it was, a genuine sappy moment from Penk and Don would hold on to the feeling in his chest for the rest of the summer.


	8. Seven

"Stop it, stop flirting with her. She has a greenpeace button on her backpack. She's going to hate you once she finds out your dad work for the oil company," Don said, not looking up from the ice he was shaking around in his cup.

His best friend since fourth grade, Alton More, made a considering noise before he said, “And I am a closet environmentalist who is forced to conform to the unyielding beliefs of my father."

"That why you ditched me last weekend to go to a baseball game?" Don said before he shook a couple of ice cubes into his mouth. He's been home for two weeks but summer hadn't quite let go of Oregon yet, so it was time for fountain ice tea and watching More try and pick up hipster girls in the park. 

"Oh shut up. Dad'll understand if it gets me laid," he said with a certain amount of conviction. And that probably wasn't completely misplaced, but that wasn't going to help him with the greenpeace girl who would probably consider More a barely evolved from a caveman.

Or maybe she wouldn't if More kept insisting that girls secretly or not so secretly wanted a bad boy. And More fit that bill if considered a shoplifting charge and a night spent in juvi to be a criminal record. 

“So you gonna spin it like you stole from that WalMart to stick it to corporate America?” Don said in reference to More brief brush with juvenile detention when they were in middle school. 

More made a considering noise. “I hadn’t thought of it that way, Donny. Good idea. You know ladies love a bad boy.” 

Don snorted with laughter and he might have said something else but his phone buzzed in his pocket. 

"Besides, someone has to show the ladies of Astoria a good time and Donny, since you don't want that responsibility, I am happy to pick up the slack," More said, chuckling a bit at his own perceived hilarity. 

“And I’m sure you’re just the guy to do it,” Don said as he opened a snap from Skip. It wasn’t anything important, just Skip making a weird face on the screen. Don smiled because he couldn’t help himself. 

“Oh ho ho,” More said and Don knew he 'd been spotted. Greenpeace girl was forgotten now, and lucky her because Don had all of More’s attention now. He sat down on the bench next to Don. But rather than sitting on the bench like a normal person like Don, More sat on the back on the bench with his feet resting next to Don. “Where’d you meet him?”

And here it was, the thing Don had been trying to avoid since he got back from camp. It wasn’t that Don thought More was going to weird about it. He’d never been weird about it during the months leading up to Don’s summer away. But while one boyfriend might not have been weird, two might be. But Don really wanted to tell him, because if he was ever going to tell anybody then it was going to be More. 

“At camp,” Don said, really hoping he wasn’t blushing. 

More laughed. “You mean that fucking bastard sent you to camp to straighten you out and you go and find yourself a boyfriend? That's too perfect.” 

“Two boyfriends,” Don said because if he was doing this then he was going to do it all at once.

“Seriously,” More said. “Didn’t take you for the love ‘em and leave ‘em type.” 

“No, I mean I have two at present,” Don said. 

“You are juggling boys?” and More sounded shocked by this but wasn’t overly judgy. 

“No,” Don said and he knew he sounded judgy. “It’s not like that either,”

“Holy shit,” More said and he was still shocked and a little impressed and Don knew he finally figured it out. “How on earth did you pull that off?”

“They were together before.” Don rubbed the back of his neck. 

“Ahh, you joined a party already in progress. Good for you man,” More said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. 

“Thanks,” he said, not really sure what to say to that. 

“I mean it. I mean, I’m shocked you went for it and that you managed a threeway before I did, but it’s cool.” 

“What do you mean, ‘shocked I went for it?’” Don asked. 

“I haven’t convinced you to smoke a cigarette yet,” More said. “I just figured that would be something that takes more convincing. So you’re still with ‘em, like you’re tryin’ do the distance thing?”

“Yeah, they have some experience with it,” Don shrugged. 

“Is it as terrible as it sounds?” More asked, sounding like he actually cared and wasn’t making fun. More could be a good friend like that sometimes. 

“It’s hard to get the three of us together,” Don said, without trying to get into the specifics of what the three of them needed to be together for. “It’s just life stuff getting in the way.”

“And you have to hid it from your mom,” More said, filling in the rest. He didn’t sound judgemental - just matter of fact. 

“They understand,” Don said, not sure why he felt compelled to defend Skip and Penk before he defended his mom. But then he knew there was really no defending her if she ended up having a problem. “I mean, Skip is out to his mom and sister but they seem really close, his dad left too. Penk didn’t mention and I figured I don’t really care. Maybe if we lived together or something.” He sighed.

“It’s good,” More said. “Keep your expectations realistic and who knows, maybe you’ll make it.”

Don nodded, because he really hoped they would.


	9. Eight

When his feet hit the Georgia dirt for his second summer, he tried to keep More’s advice in mind. He really did, but it was hard to do that when he with them. When he was with them, he wanted it all. And that surprised him how different it was with one summer under his belt. Coming back to this, it was hard not to have expectations. And he realized, almost too late, that mind reading was one of the things he was expecting his boyfriends to have. But then he wasn’t alone in that, Skip was right there with him. 

Penk had come back to camp fine, boundless in his energy with an almost constant need to get them alone. And it was nice to be wanted and feel desirable. But then something changed, and Don was a bad boyfriend in that he couldn’t pinpoint the day that it happened. It seemed to come on gradually in almost unnoticeable ways until it wasn’t. But looking back on it he should have noticed, and he’ll never not forget that he didn’t. 

But when he did notice he was honestly didn’t know what to do about it. They had always been good before, there had never been a hiccup in their relationship. But they were having one and he didn’t know what to do. He, at this moment, needed Penk to just say exactly what was on his mind and damn the consequences. But he couldn’t do that and didn’t want to talk to Skip about it because that felt worse, like he was excluding Penk from something he shouldn't be excluded from.

So Don didn’t say anything - he tried to roll with it and hope that it would work itself out. That was a mistake, he should put it all out there and made them talk about it but he didn’t. And he probably wouldn’t have if Bill Guarnere of all people hadn’t put his foot in his mouth. 

Coming back the second summer, one of the things that was different is that they, the three of them, were now the subject of gossip. Don wasn’t really sure how that happened, perhaps Skip’s heart eyes, but Don wasn’t overly bothered by it. He knew what his relationship was and what it wasn’t so it didn’t bother him what other people were saying about it. It honestly didn’t occur to him that Skip or Penk might feel differently. But then he’d never thought about the relationship in the way that Bill did when he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. 

“What happens to Penk when Don takes Muck home to mom?” 

It wasn’t a conversation that Don was meant to hear, but that hardly made it better. And it didn’t make Don feel any less angry for having heard it. But the quick flash of anger dissipated when he realized someone did believe it. Penk believed it. Don didn’t know how he knew that but he did and he hated that that was true. His feet carried him back to their cabin without his authority and when he burst through the door, he just started right in. And was grateful Buck wasn’t there.

“I’m not going to leave you for him.” Don said firmly, looking Penk right in the eye when he said it. 

“What?” Skip said, sitting. He’d had his head resting on Penk’s stomach when Don burst into the room like a crazy person. 

“You think that don’t you?” And Don didn’t need Penk to answer because he could see it on his face. 

“What is he talking about?” Skip asked and Don could tell he’s read Penk right because whatever Don had seen Skip had seen it too. 

“No idea,” Penk said, sitting up and putting some distance between him and Skip. 

“Don’t be like that,” Don said, seeing that Penk was trying to brush this off. Like if he changed the subject, Don would forget about it. “You think that. Maybe not all the time but enough of the time that you are defensive about it. And just not like that. Skip and I aren’t going to run off together and leave you.” 

“The fuck?” Skip cut in and Penk was doing his best not to look at him. “I mean the actual fuck? How could you think that?”

Penk looked cagey and didn’t look at them when he said, “I know it, but knowing and knowing are two different things.” 

And Don understood that, that difference between knowing and really knowing was wide. He’d felt the same way the first time Skip had gasped that he loved him into the phone when they had been brave enough try for phone sex while Don’s mom was at work. He hadn’t really believed it then and it took until Skip had said it when they arrived back at camp before Skip planted a wet kiss on his cheek. 

It took action so that’s what he did, he took a step forward and turned Penk’s face to his gently with two fingers on Penk’s chin. Once Penk was looking at him, he leaned forward and down a bit to press a firm kiss on Penk’s lips. 

He hadn’t meant for it to move any further then a firm kiss. He’d actually meant to scold Penk a little more, but that Penk, he was fucking convincing when he wanted something. And Don shouldn’t have let him get away with it, but he’d always been weak for their attention. When he felt Penk grab the back of his thighs, that’s what finally snapped Don out of it. 

“Oh no,” Don said, pulling back a bit, “you think you are running this show?” 

Skip made a dismissive noise. “Yeah, you’re in trouble. You don’t get special privileges.” 

“Aww, what are you going to do? Spank me?” Penk said as he gripped Don’s thighs tighter. 

“There’s a thought,” Skip said, pretending to oggle Penk’s ass. 

“I don’t know if I’d be into that,” Penk said, not looking at Skip. “But I am kinda into this take charge thing you’ve got going on here.” 

“Don’t be an ass,” Don said and he meant to twist away, not really feeling like being the butt of one of Penk’s jokes right now, but Penk held on tighter. 

“I’m not, I meant it. You take charge for a bit and see where that get’s us,” Penk offered, looking uncharacteristically serious. 

“Just say the word and I’ll put a sock on the door.” Muck said. 

“You want to fuck me?” Penk asked. “I’d be into that.” 

“I haven’t…” Don trailed off truly aware of how out of his depth he was. 

“I know, “Penk said. “I’m still kinda flattered you picked us for your big sexual awakening. So what do you say, grasshopper? You ready to learn a new trick?” 

“Skip, we’re gonna need a sock on the door,” Don said for the first time breaking Penk’s gaze. 

Skip clapped his hands together and hopped off the bed. 

“So bossy,” Penk said. “You know he loves it.” 

“Shut up and get naked,” Don replied. 

“Oh careful, you’re getting me hot,” Skip replied once he’d closed the door. 

“You have to wait your turn,” Penk snarked as he pulled his shirt over his head. “There is a line.” 

Skip might have started to pout but Penk continued. 

“But if you’re a good boy, I might be persuaded to suck your dick.” 

And just like that they were back to easy laughter and hastily shed clothing. And the nerves had left Don’s body right up until he was between Penk’s spread legs. He must have made a face when Skip handed him the lube he’d retrieved from under his mattress. 

“You got this,” Penk reassured as he braced himself on his elbows. 

“You’ll tell me if I…” 

“Oh he’ll tell you all about it, it’ll be getting him to shut up that’s the trick,” Skip rescued. 

Don raked his teeth of his bottom lip to hide his laugh. 

“Easy does it, Tiger and you’ll be just fine.”

Don had a flashback to the archery range at dusk and Penk walking him through this, Skip spread out in front of them. He took a deep breath. Penk was right. He’d taught Don everything he needed to know. He squeezed lube out onto his finger, probably too much, and rubbed it back and forth to make sure it was warm. He made sure to make eye contact with Penk as he traced the first pass around Penk’s rim because ‘you gotta look at who you’re doing.’ In typical Penk fashion, he didn’t look all that bothered so Don applied more pressure, coaxing the muscle.

“You ever do this without us,” Don asked, trying to be sexy and judging by Skip’s moan it was at least working for one of them. 

“I always think of you, baby,” Penk said, blowing Don a kiss as Don teased his first finger in. 

“How’s reality working for you?” Don said, crooking his finger. 

“So good, baby,” Penk said, giving a rock of his hips down into Don’s palm. 

“You two are hot,” Skip said as Don started working a second finger alongside the first. 

“Thought Penk was the one that liked to watch,” Don said as he watched Penk’s face to see if he could spread his fingers. 

Don expected Skip to laugh it off, he had not expected Skip to lean over and say directly into his ear, “Could watch you all day.” 

Don and Penk both moaned because Don spread his fingers. 

Skip leaned back, looking very pleased with himself. 

“We’ll get him later,” Penk said, one of his arms coming up so he could brace himself against the headboard. 

“Looking forward to it,” Skip smiled as Don teased a third finger around Penk’s rim. 

Penk sucked air through his teeth when Don slid the third finger inside, so he stopped. He waited and watched as Skip combed his fingers through Penk’s hair. Don waited, watching as Penk’s breathing evened out and he leaned into Skip’s hand. So he started slowly spreading his fingers, waiting and then spreading again until Penk was rolling his hips down into Don’s palm again. 

“Ready when you are,” Penk said before he reached inside his pillow for a condom. 

“I’ll do the honours,” Skip said, plucking the condom out of Penk’s hand and tearing the package open with his teeth. Don had to hold his breath while Skip slipped it on him and he didn’t dare watch. He heard the clicking cap of lube and the return of Skip’s hand. When he was done, Skip pressed a kiss on his cheek. “Batter up.” 

How Penk managed a laugh was beyond Don. He took a deep shaking breath as he pulled out his fingers. He wiped them on his own thigh and almost jumped out of his skin when Penk’s leg came up to wrap around him. 

“Easy there,” Penk said. “Just improving your angle.” 

“Yeah, ok,” Don said as he braced himself against Penk’s hip. He went slow like Penk had taught him, waiting until he felt the gentle give before pushing forward. It felt intense and felt like it took forever but the look on Peck’s all breathless and open, making it worth it. 

“You can move now,” Penk said, giving Don a tap on the hip. Don’s lip caught on his teeth as he pulled out and slowly pushed back in. On the second try Penk rocked down to meet him with a smirk that made Don’s breath catch. 

“Come on, you. Climb on,” Penk said, turning his head to Skip. Don watched as Skip straddle Penk’s chest. He’d tried this once, but inexperience hadn’t been his friend. Now he hooked his chin over Skip’s shoulder and it was hot. Penk’s lips wrapped around the head Skip’s cock. He made his thrusts shallow, to tease. After all it was only fair, he was doing a good job of teasing Skip. He watched Penk’s brow furrow when he figured out what was going on. Skip head rocked back onto Don’s shoulder as Penk took him deeper, so Don speed up. The room was filled with the wet sound of Penk’s mouth and the thump of the headboard against the wall. Don could see Skip’s thighs shaking so he fucked forward harder hoping Penk would take the hint. Judging by the broken noise Skip made, he did. It never took Skip long once he started shaking and when Don nipped at a spot behind his ear, Skip came down Penk’s throat. Penk nursed him through it and then Skip leaned back into Don. It was the rhythmic slap of the headboard mixed with the wet noise of skin on skin after that. The race to see who could come first. It was Penk with his white knuckle grip on the headboard by a hair, and Don was pleased with himself as he rested his forehead against Skip’s shoulder. When the lazy haze of his orgasm cleared, he reached for Penk’s hand. He laced their fingers together and squeezed. 

When Penk looked at him he said, “You’re ours, say you’re ours.” 

Penk returned the squeeze. “Sure am.”


	10. Nine

Don sat at the end of the dock. His eyes were fixed on ripple in the water around his line. He spun the reel so it clicked twice just to make it more interesting. It was a new reel, a birthday present that his uncle had sent him and he felt weird using it. The why of it wasn’t really something he’d wanted to explain to Buck. Not because he was protecting his uncle but because he would really like to get through his birthday without anyone feeling sorry for him. 

Behind him, he heard Skip and Alex’s voices before their feet even hit the dock, but he thought if they wanted to try and be sneaky he wasn’t going to take that from them. 

“Hey sexy,” Alex said before he got to Don. And it sounded loud but cutting through the quiet, it probably sounded louder than it actually was. 

Don smiled and shook his head as they plopped down next to him, Alex on his left and Skip on his right. 

“Happy Birthday,” Alex said, revealing the box of Twinkies he’d been poorly concealing behind his back. 

“You are so going to get us caught,” Don said, mostly because he felt like he had to for the sake of there being no other adult present. But it was lost on deaf ears as Alex was already opening the box of Twinkies. 

“Ha,” Skip said. “We’ve swapped blow jobs out here. If Sobel stumbles onto us now, I’d be shocked. For a tyrannical mad man, he’s shockingly unobservant.” 

“Besides, Tab got busted at the girls camp. They have their hands full right now.” Alex said, producing one blue candle from his pocket. “Here. Hold this,” he said, holding out an unwrapped Twinkie. 

Don took it and held it as Alex push the candle in. More digging in his pockets and Alex produced a book of matches. It took some doing, but he finally got one to light and lit the candle. 

“Happy Birthday,” Skip said, pressing a kiss to Don’s cheek. 

“Yeah,” Alex said, resting his chin against Don’s shoulder. “Happy Birthday, baby.” 

“We’ll spare you the singing this year,” Skip added. 

Don smiled as he blew out his candle. 

I wish it will always be just like this. 

“You make a good one?” Alex asked before he pressed a kiss to the place where Don’s t-shirt gave way to bare skin. 

“Yeah, I think so,” Don smiled. 

“Better have,” Alex said as he opened a Twinkie packet with his teeth. 

“I’m sure it was,” Skip said, reaching across Don’s lap to retrieve a Twinkie from the box. 

“How’s the reel?” Alex asked around a mouth full of Twinkie, gesturing with the remaining Twinkie. 

Don shrugged. “I mean it’s good. I knew it’d be good…” 

Don trailed off into a sigh. 

“But,” Skip added, not going to let Don get away with withholding something. 

“Does it make me a shit human being to take it?” And because he could feel Skip starting to object to the idea that it was even possible for Don to be a shit human being, he plowed on. “I know how he would feel about me, how he would feel about us, and yet I’m accepting birthday presents?” 

There was silence for a moment and Don was about to suggest that it proved his point when Alex spoke. 

“You need a place to live,” Alex said. “And morals and shit are great and all, but they don’t provide shelter or feed you. So like idealism is awesome for the independent, but for everyone still living with their parents, there should be no judgement.” 

“You have to be safe,” Skip added. “Whatever you have to smile through to keep you there, it keeps you safe. In the end, the rest is bullshit.” 

“But I’m not just smiling though it,” Don said. “I’m actively lying.”

“Not to us,” Alex said. “Soon we’ll be out, going to school, living our lives, and with our own place. Until then, until we can take you in, honesty is probably not the best policy.” 

A warmth traveled through Don’s body, making his chest tight and his face warm. Their own place. A place that Don could live. And for first time, a plan that included the three of them. It was something Don had avoided thinking about, hadn’t dreamed of asking about, but now here it was just casually laid out in front of him. Clearly they had been plotting behind his back, again. But this time, he really didn’t mind so much. 

“So not a shit human being,” Skip said before reaching for another Twinkie. “I mean, I’d milk ‘im for all it’s worth. Give homophobia a financial cost.”

“Doubt it helps,” Don replied as he dug into the box for another Twinkie. “But it’s ok...well, not ok but you know…” He nudged his shoulder first into Alex’s shoulder and then into Skip’s. “I’ve got you two now.” 

Skip planted a wet kiss on Don’s cheek. He looked touched when he pulled back and Don was glad. 

He felt Alex’s arm snake around his middle, his fingers playing with the hem of Don’s t-shirt. Don leaned back into Alex as Don felt fingers trail over his bare skin. 

“We’ve got you too.” Alex said. 

And felt like they did, it felt like on the end of the dock over birthday Twinkies, they had made a pact. That no matter what, they had each other.


	11. Ten

Don had never been so anxious to see the roommate arrangement as he was for this summer. He’d been back and forth all summer about whether or not Winters would split them up. He’d been so sure by April he would, and May arrived and information packets came and he hadn’t, Don had literally jumped into the air in his mother’s kitchen. He’d been even more surprised when Skip had been given a leadership position. 

“I can’t believe they gave me power over another human being,” Skip said, pacing in their cabin so clearly Don wasn’t the only one. 

“Well, technically three,” Alex said from where he was laying on his bed. 

Skip made a dismissive noise. “Oh, the two of you wouldn’t listen to me about nothing, but this one will. Like the shit that comes out of my mouth will be taken seriously by someone else.” 

“You’ll be fine,” Don said as he started to unpack his fishing pole. 

“Jesus, I hope so,” Skip said, dropping onto his bed. 

Don had been ready to say something more encouraging to Skip when he saw, standing at the bottom of the steps, a fiffteen year old boy with dark hair and wide eyes looking at the cablin like it was an imposing figure. So Don turned his attention back to his fishing pole and let it unfold as it may. After seeming like longer than it should have, he looked up when he heard the door close. 

“Are you our plus one?” Skip said as he hopped off his bed.

The boy nodded, looking a little overwhelmed in the face of such energy. “I’m Eugene Roe.”

“Well Roe,” Skip said, getting up and extending his arms out beside him. It was a bit over the top, but then Skip was a bit over the top. “Welcome to cabin three. I am your cabin leader Skip Muck. You can call me Skip, you can call me Muck, and if you yelled ‘hey asshole’ into a crowd, I’d probably turn around. My partners in crime are Alex Penkala-” He pointed to Alex who leaning back against the headboard of his bed, trying to pretend to be cooler than he was. Don shook his head and returned his attention to stringing his fishing pole. 

“Hey, Roe,” Alex said and Don tried to hid his smile because Alex was even trying to sound cool. 

“-And in this corner, we have Don Malarkey,” Muck said.

Don looked up and he tried to school his face into something that would be warm. “Make yourself at home, Roe,” he said, noticing his own voice sounded a little weird. 

“Well,” Muck said, clapping his hands together. “We need to get you unpacked. Now there is a right way and a wrong way to pack these footlockers if you want to pass inspection.”

“Oh, give it a rest, Skip,” Alex growled. “It’s gonna go to four, it always goes to four.”

And even though Don wasn’t going to say it, Alex had a point. There was no way they were going to beat Grant, he’d picked up all of Speirs’ less than charming personality traits. There was no way he’d lose. 

“What?” Roe said as he handed his duffel over to Skip’s waiting hands. He looked rightful confused but he seemed game to go along. 

“Cabin of the Camp,” Skip said as he started laying things out on Roe’s bed. “It’s an award that goes to the cleanest, most cared for cabin. And,” he said, turning to look at Alex, “since Speirs got promoted this year, it’s our year.” The look said I’m not going to blow you later, but Roe wouldn’t know that. 

“Doesn’t matter,” Don added. “Speirs taught Grant everything he knows. They could keep a distillery in there and still pass inspection. Hell, he’s probably does have a distillery in there.” And mostly he was trying for solidarity. Skip couldn’t be mad at them both. 

“Ignore the naysayers,” Skip said, still sounding like he was going to make them pay for this later.“Grant has three new kids to whip into shape and it’s our year.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Alex said. “He’ll still have the floors clean enough you can eat off them.”

“But it’s our year,” Roe said, and Don was almost surprised to hear the kid speak without being spoken too.

Skip smiled at him as he started to pull things out of the kid’s bag. “I like you. Now let’s pack your foot…” Muck stopped when something hit the floor. 

“Well, well. What do we have here?” Skip tossed a bag of M&Ms back and forth between his hands.

“Contraband,” Don said, hearing Alex echoing his words.

Skip laughed, slinging an arm around Roe’s shoulder, “Now every cabin has their own way of dealing with contraband…”

“What I want to know is how they do it in four,” Don said. The thought having just occurred to him. “Because they never lose anything and I refuse to believe it’s because they don’t have it. You know Speirs had shit and you know Sobel tossed that cabin double what he did to the rest just to catch him with it.”

“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” Skip said, glaring at him, and Alex would be willing to blow him so what’s the worse that Skip could do. “Over in one, Luz hides everything in box springs. Bull straps everything behind the headboards with duct tape. Don’s right, four uses black magic, but these are very overly complicated methods when the answer is so simple. Do you know what stops Sobel in his tracks every time?”

Roe shook his head, looking at Skip like he held all the answers in the world.

Muck walked over to his foot locker and opened it. “A tidy foot locker. Sure he’ll move things around a bit but he’s not going to take the time to search such an obvious place because he’s too smart for us.” Skip winked at him and Roe smiled. A case of hero worship already blooming.

“So come, grasshopper. Let’s get your raincoat and I’ll show you how to make these M&M’s disappear.” Muck said, walking back over to Roe’s bed. 

And Don smiled too ask he watched Skip fold Roe’s raincoat around the candy. He wasn’t the grasshopper anymore. He’d graduated. He now had wisdom to share.


	12. Eleven

“Oh no you don’t,” Penk said when Don started to gather his fishing gear after Skip had left for his staff meeting and Roe had gone off somewhere with the Heffron kid. 

“No I don’t want,” Dan asked setting his tackle box back down on his footlocker. 

“You are not going to go off fishing and leave me here,” Alex said crossing his arms over his chest. 

“You could get a fishing pole and join me, it’s not like Martin locks them up or anything,” Don said. 

“You don’t want to do something more interesting than fishing,” Alex said raising his eyebrows up and down a couple of times.

“What did you have in mind,” Don asked. “A blowjob?” 

“Tempting,” Alex answered, “But we don’t really know when the kid is going to be back. And while I don’t think he’d care that would still be super awkward.” 

“Alright, I’ll bit what’s the master plan?” Don asked leaning his fishing pole back against the foot locker because clearly he wasn’t going to get to fish. 

“I want to go for a drive,” Alex said hopping of his bed and toeing on his shoes. 

“A drive in what,” Don asked. 

“One of the ATVs,” Alex said with a casual air that Don felt was completely misplaced.

“And exactly are we going to do that,” Don decided to just focus on the logistics of the task rather than the fact that it could get them sent home. One because that wasn’t actually going to work on Alex, and two the blowjob would get them sent home too if the wrong person found out about it. The beauty of the staff meeting was that most of the wrong people would be at the other end of the camp, so Don was somewhat optimistic. 

“Dike doesn’t lock the shed,” Alex said with a shrug as they took off walking. “Didn’t you ever notice that.” 

“Honestly no,” Don said, “but then I wasn’t planning on committing grand theft ATV.” 

“Well grasshopper aren’t you glad I pay attention to these things,” Alex said, in that condescending tone that Don had hated his first year. 

“Oh fuck off, Roe is totally the grasshopper now, how on earth am I still the grasshopper,” Don asked.   
“Well much to learn you still have,” Alex replied. 

“I’m pretty sure that’s Yoda,” Don teased, “you’re mixing your pop culture references.You know how Skip hates that” 

“Well he’s not here,” Alex said as the ATV shed came into sight. “And Roe doesn’t want my wisdom, so I guess you are stuck with it.” 

“I guess I’ll take this one for the team,” Don said as they reached the shed. He could now see that Alex was right there wasn’t a padlock on the shed. “Holy shit, he really doesn’t lock this thing,” Don was shocked and honestly a little pissed off. “These are some of the most valuable equipment that the camp has he’s just leaving it out here for God and everyone to steal.” 

“Be pissed about that later,” Alex reminded him. “Right now I’m board and this is the cure.” He opened the door to the shed and sitting there in a row keys hanging on the wall were all the camps ATVs. 

“Hey we could take the tank out,” Don said stroking his fingers over the familiar key. 

“That thing probably hasn’t been started since last year,” Alex said not as impressed with this as Don was. “Let’s leave your baby here and take something we know will start.” 

“Fine,” Don sighed following Alex to one of the other ATVs, but he still spared a glance for his tarp covered girl in the corner. 

Alex grabbed a key off the wall and headed for the corresponding ATV, “Do me a favor and look out there one more time before I start this thing.” 

Don did as he was told and when he gave Alex the clear sign he started the ATV. He backed it out slowly and stopped when he got to Don. “Hop in.” 

Don walked around to the other side of the ATV and climbed inside the passenger’s seat. “Well where do you want to go?”

“Anywhere with you dear,” Alex said before he started off in the opposite direction from camp. 

Don rolled his but it was still sweet, and the ride was pretty cool too. Penk drove them up into the hills surrounding the camp and Don even managed a woo hoo yell just for Alex’s ego. And it worked because Alex glaced at him practically beaming. When he finally brought it back to the shed, Don had to admit that he was a little sorry that it was over. 

“This’ll be our thing,” Alex said as he closed the ATV shead. 

“Our thing? You can’t imagine I’m going to tell other people about this right,” Don said, we’ll he’d tell Skip but that was the end of it. No one else in this damn camp could keep a secret. 

“Yeah our thing,” Alex said like this train of thought should be an obvious one that Don really should have bored at the station. “You and Skip have the tank, so we’ll have grand theft ATV.” 

Don laughed understanding now what he meant. Alex and Skip had the parks they pulled while Don went down to the lake to fish. And Alex was right he and Skip had the tank, even if the only reason they did was because Skip had begged him so they wouldn’t get someone else. “Yeah this can be our thing,” Do said leaning over to press a kiss on Penk’s cheek.


	13. Twelve

“I hate you both.” Don said, crossing his arms over his chest. They were out in the woods behind the archery range. 

The response to his declaration was a moan and honestly he felt that Skip was mostly faking that because yeah, Penk was sucking on his neck, but come on - it was a little loud. 

Skip reached out his hand in a grabby motion. “You don’t hate us.” 

“I’m actually trying to win this year,” Don said, taking a small step back just to be on the safe said. 

“You are really going to let a little contest get in the way of fucking this tight ass?” Alex asked, giving Skip’s ass a slap and damn it, that moan was real. 

“Every fucking year,” Don said, shaking his head. “Every year I try to end up as the lone survivor and every god damn year you two seduce me to the darkside and turn me into a fucking zombie.” 

“So why break tradition?” Alex said, sliding his hand down the back of Skip’s shorts. “Because he’s getting fucked. If you don’t, I will.” 

Skip buried his face in Alex’s neck and pushed his ass back into Alex’s hand. 

“God damn it,” Don said as he started pulling the bandana off his wrist. 

“Knew we’d get you,” Alex said, reaching out and grabbing the front of Don’s shirt and pulled him into a kiss. It was all tongue and Alex’s teeth, but it was a hell of a consolation prize for being turned into a zombie. Skip made a whimpering noise that drew their attention back to him. When he lifted his head off Alex’s shoulder, his bandanna had fallen down a bit on his forehead. It hadn’t gone so far that it had dropped over his eyes but it was close enough that Don got the visual anyway. 

“Fuck, that’s hot,” Don said and honestly he couldn’t have stopped himself if he tried. 

Skip looked confused and Alex looked at Don and then looked at Skip and when he looked back at Don, it was clear that he’d done his addition correctly and knew exactly what Don was talking about. 

“You kinky bastard,” Alex said before turning to look at Skip. “I think he wants you blindfolded.” 

“Shit,” Skip swore and that wasn’t a no and Skip didn’t seem at all turned off. But he also hadn’t said yes and Don was about to start backtracking when Skip said, “Yeah, yeah. We can do that.” Skip reached out and picked up the end of Don’s bandana which was hanging uselessly at his side.

“If you don’t like it, we’ll stop,” Don said. 

“I know, but I want to. And I trust you and I think it will be hot,” Skip said, nodding.

They had the presence of mind of mind to get down on the ground first. Don swallowed hard but he took his bandana in both hands. Skip straightened up and turned his back to Don. Don pulled off Skip’s band and handed it to him. Skip stuffed it in his pocket. Don passed the bandana over Skip’s head before pulling it back to cover his eyes. Skip’s hand came up to hold the bandana over his eyes while Don tied the knot behind his head. 

“Not too tight?” Don said because he honestly had no idea what to do in this situation. 

“No, it’s good,” Skip said, turning slightly so Don could see what he looked like with green fabric stretched across his face. 

“Staring at him isn’t going to get him naked,” Alex added, laughter dancing in his voice. 

“Fuck you,” Don said, reaching forward to grab the edge of Skip’s shirt. 

“Maybe next time.” And even in the dim light, Don could see Alex wink at him. 

Don shook his head because he never had a response to Alex’s dirty talk. It always made him hot and prevented him from retaliating. Instead, he pulled Skip shirt off over his head, while Alex helped Muck get his pants down over his knees to provide some padding for Skip’s knees. Don leaned forward to press a kiss on the back of Skip’s shoulder causing Skip to jump a little. 

“It’s just me,” Don whispered. 

“I know,” Skip nodded. “It’s more intense when I can’t see you coming.” 

“Yeah,” Don said dragging his fingers over Skip’s ribs. He also watched as Alex’s hand mirrored his action. 

“Alex,” Skip said. reaching out for him. 

“Need someone to hold on to?” Alex asked as he pulled off his shirt and moved into Skip’s space. 

“Yeah, need you both,” Skip said as he traced his fingers over Alex’s ribs. 

“You got us,” Don said, pressing another kiss to Skip’s shoulder. 

Don watched as Alex rubbed his nose against Skip’s to guide him into a kiss, which Skip eagerly accepted. Don rested his chin against Skip’s shoulder. Don never watched the two of them for the same reason Alex did, because it was a turn on. He did it because he could, because they were his and he could, because he was the person that they chose to invite to this. It made him possessive in a way he couldn’t explain. 

Alex broke the kiss with a wet popping noise. He started laying kisses down Skip’s throat and at the same time, passed Don the lube he always seemed to carry in his pocket. As he slicked up his fingers, Alex began pressing opened kisses on Skip’s collarbone and beyond. Don knew he was heading for Skip’s nipples, so Skip would make that high whining noise Alex loved so much. So Don concentrated on his task, slowly tracing the rim of Skip’s opening. The muscle gave under gentle teasing and Don was able to ease his first finger in. Skip leaned back against him as he slowly added a second finger. He watched as Skip’s fingers slid up Alex’s arms, across his shoulders and up his neck until he reached his hair. Skip’s fingers tangled in Alex’s hair pulling slightly. Skip’s head rocked back onto Don’s shoulder as Don added a third finger and Don swallowed hard, getting a good view of Skip’s face with the green fabric stretched over his eyes. 

“You ready for me?” Don asked, his nose rubbing against Skip’s forehead. 

Skip nodded first before he could find his words. “Yeah, yeah I’m ready.” 

Don crooked his fingers one last time, pressing into Skip’s prostate before he withdrew his fingers. He picked up the condom that Alex threw at his knee and fumbled with getting it open. He slid it on and added lube. 

He pressed a kiss against Skip’s shoulder, before he braced his arm across Skip’s stomach. He slid in slowly, waiting for Skip’s muscles to give on their own. Skip turned his head to press an opened mouth kiss to Don’s neck as he slid home. He head Alex gasp and looked over Skip’s shoulder to see that Skip had his hand in Alex’s pants. Don rocked his hips forward when he saw Skip twist his wrist. They fell into an easy rhythm Don’s hips moving forward on Skip’s up strokes. Skip came first shaking as he rode out his orgasm. Don was next, teeth nipping at the skin of Skip’s neck. When Skip collected himself, he redoubled his effort’s into the hand job he’d started for Alex. Skip leaned forward whispering in Alex’s ear, Alex coming when Skip started to nip at Alex’s earlobe. Their breathing mixed in tempo as they tried to find their way down from their shared high. 

“Worth it?” Alex asked, his breathing still hurried. 

“So worth it,” Don said, his forehead still resting against Skip’s shoulder.


	14. Thirteen

The first time it happened, honestly the reaction inside the cabin was shock. When that cabin door closed, it honestly made Don jump. There was silence for a moment before Alex said, “Did our first year just sneak out?”

“I think he did,” Don said, honestly surprised Roe had it in him. 

“Is he going by himself?” Skip asked. 

There was rustling of sheets before Alex said, “No, he’s with that ginger kid from one.” 

“Heffron,” Skip supplied.

“Oh, like I’m going to remember their names,” Alex said, the sound of a pillow fluffing filling the room. 

The second time it happened they were feeling a little reckless and traded hand jobs because it had been a while. It had been stupid in retrospect. But Skip can be awfully persuasive. 

The third time Alex brought it up. 

“So you think he’s getting laid?” He asked this spread out on Skip’s bed with his boxers rucked down so Skip could blow him. It was hard to take him seriously like that, so Don hadn’t. 

The next morning though, Don had to admit he might be onto something. And that night Skip agreed with him. 

“Alex is right. He’s gettin’ laid. The kid is practically glowing.” 

“Good for Roe,” Alex said, raising a fist in the air. 

“Do we say something? Like leave out some condoms or…” Skip just trailed off waving a hand out in front of him. 

“Oh fuck that,” Alex said. “I did not stick around for my fourth year to teach sex ed. I stayed for this,” he said, leaning over Don where they were spread out on the bed. “What do you say Donny? Want to see stars.?”

And that seemed to be the end of it. Alex was never going to do anything and Skip seemed to believe that if Roe needed something, he’d come to them. And Don had no reason to believe that was true. So he decided he’d at least check in, let the him know the door was open and leave it there. 

So one evening when he came back from fishing, Roe was laying on his bed playing the type of solitaire that you could play in your hand with a deck of cards. He sat down on his bed, weighing how he was going to dive into this, trying not to be a repeat of Buck. Finally he decided to just dive into it. 

“So Babe, huh?” Don said as he removed his lure. 

The cards came down to cover Roe’s face, but it was still easy to see the blush traveling across Roe’s face. 

“Wow, you are turning as red as his hair,” Don said, setting his pliers down on his tackle box. 

The cards came down so Don could get a good look at Roe’s eyes. “Is it that obvious?” Roe said, voice still muffled by the cards. 

“Yeah, the gig was up when Babe started defending your honor at the archery range.” 

“So the teasing...you think everybody knows?” Roe had finally moved the cards. 

“Luz probably knows,” Don conceded. “Bill’s not the most observant fucker known to man so it might have slipped by him.” 

“He knows,” Roe said, with a certainty that meant he knew something Don didn’t. 

“Look, anyone gives you shit, the three of us will kick their ass,” Don said, no teasing in his tone because he wasn’t. Alex had a short fuse and a zero tolerance policy when it came to homophobia. “I just wanted you to know that if you needed to talk about Babe to someone that wasn’t Babe, I’m here.” 

Roe nodded seeming to consider this information. “Thanks, Malarkey.” 

“Anytime, kid,” Don said, returning to his fishing tackle. 

“You’re not going to tell me to stop sneaking out?” 

Don looked back up at Roe’s nervous expression. “I am so not the cabin leader. Discipline is all Skip’s job. And honestly, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t give a shit.” Because when else were they going to have sex, in beds no less. 

Roe still seemed to be considering things before he spoke again. “This went better than I expected.”

“Yeah, I mean we aren’t total assholes. Penk is sometimes, but he tries hard.” Don retrieved his pliers. 

“It’s the first time I’ve talked about this outside of Babe,” Roe said and Don wasn't super sure what to do with that, so he settled for trying not to blow it. 

“So you haven’t told your folks?” Don was pretty sure he knew the answer to that question from personal experience. 

“I think my mom knows. I just…” Roe trailed off, fanning the cards in his hands. “It...I don’t think she’d care. I just don’t know how to say it.” 

Don nodded; so not quite in the same boat. “It’s tough. If it makes you feel better, I haven’t told my mom either.” 

Roe nodded. 

“Well good talk I feel more like an adult already,” Don said. “And if you want to make Skip squirm, ask him for a condom this week.” 

Roe snorted a laugh and covered his mouth. “Yeah, I don’t think…” Roe trailed off. He was still smiling though. 

“Suit yourself,” Don said, though he’d been pretty sure that Roe wouldn’t go for it when he suggested it. He leaned his pole back and with his free hand patted Roe’s knee. Roe’s eyes followed the motion before turning to look at Don. “You know whatever happens, you’ve always got us, right?”

Roe nodded and put his hand over the top of Don’s.


	15. Fourteen

Don was suspicious. It was clear his boyfriends were plotting something. While that wasn’t too surprising - they were closing in on his birthday. What was worrisome was that they seemed to have dragged Roe along for the ride. He thought it was because this was the last of his birthdays that they were guaranteed to spend together. He knew that was hanging over them. 

It was hanging over them in everything. Next year Skip and Alex would not be coming back. Neither one of them wanted to be a counselor and that was probably for the best because no one seemed to be offering. And whether Don came back the next year was an open question. He knew that to spend the whole summer at his house would be torture, and it might be nice to just fish and keep a protective eye on Roe. But part of him worried if this place would just be too lonely without Skip and Alex. 

And that was hanging over the three of them, and it wasn’t going anywhere because they were absolutely not talking about it. And while that wasn’t fine with Don, he didn’t really know how to bring it up. Because they weren’t just talking about next summer, because unless they started making some plans, they talking about the rest of their lives. 

And Don was trying really hard not to dwell on that as his birthday drew ever closer. Because if this was it, he reasoned that he should probably try to enjoy it rather than moping his way through the summer dreading when it would be over. 

So on his birthday, Don wasn’t too surprised when they very obviously ditched him after dinner. But since he knew their hearts were in the right place, he let them have it and walked back to the cabin a little slower then he might have. And it was worth it. 

With an assistance from someone, Mama Roe if he had to guess, they had actually managed decorations this year. There were balloons, blue in varying shades, and a banner that said ‘Happy Birthday’ hung lopsidedly on the back wall of the cabin. But while Mama Roe seemed more than willing to pack and ship anything, that did not explain the cake that was sitting on a footlocker that had been dragged into the middle of the room. It was one of those small round cakes that weren’t meant to feed a lot of people, chocolate frosting, and on the top in white icing it said “Happy Birthday Don.” 

“Surprise,” the three of them yelled and of the first time since his first year, Don really was. 

“Holy shit,” he said, wiping his hand across his mouth. 

“We got you the traditional Twinkies,” Alex said, pulling the box from behind his back, “but Roe thought we could class it up a bit this year.” 

Don laughed, “That in no way explains this cake.” 

“Lip,” Roe said with a shrug as he started arranging the blue and white candles. 

And it was such a Lip thing, to go along with this. 

Alex produced a disposable lighter and started lighting the candles that Roe had placed in a circle around the cake. 

“Ok, a good wish this year,” Skip said, squeezing Don’s shoulders, “because it’s on a real cake so it has to come true.” 

Don knew what he wanted without even thinking about it. He wanted to see everyone in this room again after this summer. So when Alex lit the last candle and moved out of his way, that’s what Don wished for. They didn’t have to stay together, or move in together, or get married and adopt that dog Alex wanted. He wanted to see them again, because before Don had stalked them to the baseball field they had been friends. So even if he lost everything else he wanted to at least keep that. 

“All right. Let’s cut this bad boy,” Alex said, his words and the flick of his pocket knife opening jaring Don from his wish. It wasn’t easy getting the cake cut with only a pocket knife, but they only had to get it into fourths. Apparently promises had been made that they would dispose of the evidence as quickly as possible. 

“I think if I have to eat all this cake and those Twinkies, I will lapse into a sugar coma and die,” Skip said as he picked the slice of cake up with is fingers since none of them had thought to grab forks. 

“Aww, where is your sense of adventure?” Alex said around a mouth full of cake. 

“We’ll save the Twinkies for the next night dinner is truly awful,” Don said. 

“So tomorrow,” Roe said. 

The snarky comment from their first year made everyone pause. 

“I do declare,” Alex said in a fake southern accent. “I do believe we are rubbing off on him.” 

“Corrupting America’s youth,” Skip said. “I am going to list it as one of my special skills on my admission forms.”

Alex laughed, Roe smiled, and Don swallowed the cake in his mouth that went down like a lump. There it was again, the reminder that it was never going to be the three of them in this cabin again. There just seemed to be no getting around it no matter how Don tried. So he did what he always did, tore off another bite of cake, and tried his best not to think about it.


	16. Fifteen

Despite his best efforts, it really hadn’t been working. Ignoring the elephant in the cabin. If anything, it had gotten harder, because Skip and Alex were still plotting. Or he hoped they were plotting because if they weren’t, they were just deliberately excluding him and that hurt worse. In the first days after his birthday, he had resolved not to say anything. He was not going to be that jealous boyfriend that got his feelings hurt. And super positive and make everyone else around him miserable. But with those two options the remaining choice seemed to be insecurity and that one seemed to be fitting Don just fine. But even now he was trying to make sure that no one noticed that he was spiraling into self doubt. 

And that turned out to be pretty easy because he’d set up a pattern from the first summer of withdrawing himself from the rest of them, because unlike everyone else in his cabin, he liked to fish. There was no way that Alex or Skip would have the patience to sit at the lake and wait for animals that had gotten pretty smart over the years if they had made it this long. But catching something wasn’t really the point. A concept that was lost on them. So every day for at least an hour, Don had some quiet time to himself to let his imagination run wild. And a few days after his birthday, it occurred to him that maybe that wasn’t a good thing. 

Fortunately for him, he wasn’t the only one that realized that. 

“You got room for one more?” 

Don turned his head even though he knew it was Buck. 

“Sure,” he said. “You’re never going to catch anything with that shity lurer.” 

Buck snorted as he readied the camp pole to be cast. “I didn’t think that was the point.” 

“No, not really,” Don conceded. 

“I thought it was avoiding Skip and Penk,” Buck said as he cast his line. 

“Ahh,” Don said as he reeled his line in slowly just for something to do with his hands. “I knew you weren’t out here for the fish. Martin or Bull sure, but I wasn’t even sure if you knew where this lake was.” 

“There wasn’t a lot of time growing up for things that weren’t baseball,” Buck said and Don honestly couldn’t describe how Buck felt about that. “But quit trying to deflect, I try not to notice what’s going on with the three of you because it gives me plausible deniability, but something is up with the three of you.” 

“I have no idea what’s going on with them,” Don said, recasting his line with a little more force than was strictly necessary.

“There it is,” Buck said, turning his head to toward Don, but Don just kept looking out at the water. 

“Well isn’t it what you’ve always worried about? I am a year behind them, and while it took longer for that to matter then you thought it would, we seem to have arrived at the same inevitable conclusion.”

“You weren’t supposed to hear that,” Buck said, his reel clicking as he reeled it back in. “And that was supposed to be a comment on their maturity, not yours.” 

“And as comforting as that is, it doesn’t really help me,” Don said, not reeling his line in because patience was a virtue. “They are planing something without me. I’ve been around them long enough to know when they are plotting and even if I didn’t, they are not that fucking subtle about it. Skip’s hickey is the size of a golf ball on his neck and he’s hiding it badly all the damn time. And you know I don’t know where Skip has applied to school and I’m not so young that he would have already had to do that.” 

“What about Penk?” Buck asked as he cast again. 

“Penk’s never wanted to go to college,” Don said, giving up and reeling his line in slowly. “He wants to go to culinary school. And since that’s the extent of my knowledge, that’s probably also a problem. So at this point I don’t know which is worse. Either they are planning their futures without me or at the end of the summer this whole thing craters out.” 

“That’s a pretty bleak outlook on life,” Buck commented.

Don shrugged because he honestly didn’t know that it could be any other way. 

They were quiet for a while, the only sound the clicking of a reels and Don was about to call it a night before Buck spoke again. 

“I don’t think you’re right, but let’s suppose for the the sake of argument that you’re right. I still think you’re wrong.” 

“Noted,” Don said, turning to face Buck so he knew he was paying attention. 

“When I was your age, I had a girlfriend, Jerry.” Buck continued as if Don hadn’t interrupted him. “And we used to talk about going off to school together, and I actually thought that I could see myself spending the rest my life with this girl. And then I got into UCLA and she wanted to go north, and it was fine we said, we’d make it though it. We didn’t make it to Valentine's Day. Between me playing baseball and school work, the distance just kicked our ass. So the point is you wouldn’t be the first person it happened too. You change when you finally get out high school and sometimes the relationships that you had just dont fit anymore. And that isn’t anybody’s fault.”

“If that was supposed to cheer me up, you did a really shity job,” Don said. 

“You don’t have any idea if you need cheering up and besides, college is a big world. If Skip and Penk don’t end up fitting, you’ll meet someone who will.” 

“Yeah and how’s that working out for you?” Don asked. 

“Well there was a teammates girlfriend’s friend, that’s kinda how it works when you play sports. Friends and relationships have to be related to the sport or it doesn’t work. I met her when some of us hung out to watch a movie but she has a boyfriend. It’s probably better anyway, baseball is like being married with two kids and full time job. You have team practice, position practice, strength and conditioning, and film. You play ball in the fall and the spring, and then I have to go to class, do six hours of study hall and sit with my mentor every week. So there’s not a lot of room in there to give someone the attention they’d deserve.” 

“Maybe it works out then, I can focus on school-” 

“They are not going to break up with you,” Buck interrupted. “They’re being assholes at the moment sure, but the three of you have something. So go knock their heads together and figure it out.” 

“Why do I always have to be the adult?” Don said, casting his line out, while trying to decided if he shared any of Buck’s confidence at all.


	17. Sixteen

As he sat down on his bed and started removing his lure from the line, he could see Roe lingering on the porch, probably trying to decide if Don should be left alone right now. The decision was made for him though when he heard Alex’s booming voice.

“Hey Roe, look who we found. Decided we’d walk him down here just in case he got lost.”

Don pulled his pliers out of his tackle box and squared his shoulders. 

The door flew open and Don was sure they stepped in with some kind of flare but he wasn’t going to give them the benefit of acknowledging it. Instead he gave his whole attention to the lurer still on his line. He’d bent one of the hooks, most likely on a tree branch. So he needed to remove the hook and add a new one. 

“Hello, earth to Don,” Skip said in his sing song voice that right now was just getting on Don’s nerves. 

“Yeah,” Don replied, not looking up from from the hook partially because he was pissed as hell and partly because he didn’t want to end up with the hook in his finger. 

“What crawled up your ass?” Penk’s comment was followed by the sound of springs creaking, meaning he had just flopped onto his bed. 

“Really? You have no idea?” Don said, finally looking up from his project to toss the hook into the trash before he turned to look at Alex. “No fucking idea why I’d be pissed?” 

“No, I don’t. That’s why I fucking asked you,” Alex snapped. 

“You want to know why I’m pissed?” Don asked, gesturing at Alex with his pliers. “Skip’s got a hickey the size of a half dollar on his neck and you know what, Penk? I know where that came from and I know I wasn’t there when you put it there.” 

And for all his usual bluster, Alex didn’t say anything. In fact he looked like Don had slapped him. Probably because he’d called him Penk, a nickname that Don had given up years ago and now only used in mix company like Alex’s name was some guarded state secret. So he knew when it flew out of his mouth that it would do some damage but it was already out there - a reflection on his hurt. He couldn’t even bring himself to look at Skip right now, because he was pissed and he felt he had every right to stay that way. He wasn’t going let Skip’s doe eyes talk him out if it. 

He heard Skip sigh. “We have a lot of explaining to do. And don’t be too mad at Alex because he wanted to tell straight off and I didn’t want to get your hopes up.” 

“My what?” Don asked and Skip looked guilty leaning against the footboard of his bed. 

“We have been conspiring behind your back,” Skip acknowledged and he seemed at a loss of where to go next so Alex kept going. 

“I found a community college in Eugene that has a Culinary Arts program and they’ll take me because it’s a freakin’ community college and my grades aren’t that bad,” Alex said like he’d had this argument before, probably with his sister who worried about things like that all the time. 

“But getting into the University of Oregon is not as easy,” Skip took over. “So I didn’t want to tell you if I couldn’t do it, because my mother made it very clear I wasn’t moving across the country to go to a community college. But I did it,” Skipp said, pulling an envelope out of his pocket and giving it a wave. “The hickey was misguided attempt to pick up my self esteem because I hadn’t heard yet.” 

“You picked your colleges for me?” Don said a little shocked. 

“Figured it was the easiest way to get us in the same place,” Alex said with that shrug that he always used when he was trying to turn something big into something small. 

“God, I’m such an asshole,” Don said, rubbing his hands across his face. He had mentioned that his first year here that he wanted to go to the University of Oregon and they had turned that into their life goals. 

“Well, we weren’t exactly being honest with you,” Skip said. 

“That becomes a whole lot more ok considering that in August we are going to be in the same state,” Don said, still feeling like the asshole. 

“It’s still like three hours away,” Alex reminded him, like that mattered at all. Don would walk it if he had to. 

Don got up off his bed and walked over to Alex’s and proceeded to straddle his legs across Alex’s. “I shouldn't have yelled at you. You don’t know what was going on in my head.” 

“Skip and I aren’t going to run off together and leave you. I thought we had that conversation,” Alex said and Don nodded. 

Don felt the bed dip behind him as Skip sat down. “So you forgive us?” 

“Always,” Don said and he meant it.There was probably nothing he wouldn’t forgive them for. 

“You want to put a hickie on the other side of his neck to match?” Alex asked. “Even the score?” 

Don turned to look at Skip and the look on Skip’s face clearly showed he had no problem with it. 

Skip helpfully removed his shirt and tossed it behind him. He tossed subtlety out the window and titled his head to the side to offer up his neck. He’d always been shameless when he wanted something. Don had never purposely given a hickie before, they had always been the result of getting caught up in the moment. But not knowing exactly what he was doing had never stopped him before, so he licked his lips and leaned forward and pressed an opened mouth kiss to Skip’s neck. He teased his teeth against Skip’s shoulder and felt him shudder against him. He sucked the skin between his teeth and pressed firmly with his teeth. Skip whined and bucked against Don. 

“Are we going to need a sock?” Alex asked, ever the instigator. 

Don released Skip’s skin with a pop. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure.” 

Skip took a deep shaky breath before he stood up. “You all had better be naked by the time I get back.” 

“You think we could do it like this?” Don asked, sliding his ass back into Alex’s crotch. 

“Shit, yeah we can do that,” Alex said, his hand coming up to grip Don’s leg. 

“Less talking more striping,” Skip said as he walked back towards the bed. 

“Better,” Alex said as he took off his shirt and tossed it toward Skip. 

Skip caught it and tossed it back at him, and barely missing Alex’s head. Don shook his head and pulled off his shirt. Once Skip got to them the undressing moved a lot faster because Skip seemed to be on a mission to get Don naked. He was also pretty efficient with his own clothing. Once he finally got his pants off, Skip launched himself at Don, kissing him. As he made out with Skip, he felt Alex’s lips on his shoulder, and he knew he was getting a hickey before he even felt Alex’s teeth. 

Skip pulled back with a breathy giggle. “Ha ha, twins.” 

Don couldn’t help it, he laughed. 

“This is the part where I offer a blow job,” Skip said. “When it’s new, sometimes it helps to have a distraction.”

“Tell me ‘bout it,” Don said, and then clarified. “Tell me about the first time he did this to you.” 

Don felt Alex’s smile against his neck, Skip raked his teeth over his bottom lip. “I’m not as good at that as Alex is,” and for a second Don thought he was going to have to beg, but Skip continued. “But for you, I’ll try.” 

Don felt Alex’s nose along the back of his ear, and knew he wasn’t the only one that was going to enjoy this. 

Muck leaned in to kiss Don, probably for courage but Don was always willing to chase Skip’s tongue around his mouth regardless of the cause. Skip’s fingers danced along Don’s arms, looking for some place to land. They swooped up to the back of his neck before Skip’s fingers started to comb through Don’s hair, tracing firm lines over his scalp. 

“Come on, tell me,” Don said, pulling back and nuzzling his nose along Skip’s. 

“It was down where we swim. Super sappy over here even brought a towel down for me,” Skip said, face still pressed against Don’s.

“Shut up, you loved it,” Alex said and the sheets were rustling so Don knew that Penk was looking for the lube. He tried not to tense up at the thought of that, just focusing on Skip. 

“I did,” Skip agreed, “love it when you got all romantic. His hands shook when he took my shirt off.” 

Alex made a noise of protest but he didn’t actually argue so Don figured Skip had it right. 

“So he started kissing behind my ear,” Skip gestured to his left ear, “because you know.”

Alex sucked on the skin behind Don’s right ear, and nipped gently, probably not hard enough to leave a mark but with Don’s fair skin it was a coin flip. 

“And ever the romantic, he spat in his hand and then stuck his hand down my pants,” Skip demonstrated before wrapping his hand around Don’s dick and started to give Don a hand job. “See, the goal,” Skip said, twisting his wrist on the up stroke that he knew Don liked, “was to get me to come. Because,” Skip twisted his wrist again and Don had to brace himself against Skip’s leg, “he thought if he could get me off, it would loosen me up.” Skip shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know if it worked or not, but I’d say it’s worth a shot.”

Skip backed up though, clearly not going to try and duplicate Alex’s hand job. Skip had a special skill for moments like this. His legs bent right up against the footboard but Skip was adaptable like that. He started by licking Don’s cock from base tip, for the punched out whine that he never failed out get out of his lovers. He took the head of Don’s dick between his lips and sucked, and Don felt Alex rest his shin on Don’s shoulder. Skip flattened his tongue along the underside of Don’s dick. With his free hand, Don combed his fingers though Skip’s hair. Skip made a pleased noise around Don’s dick. Don gave Skip’s hair a tug and when Skip all out moaned Don was done for, his eyes closed as he rocked his head back onto Alex’s shoulder. 

“You look pretty pleased with yourself,” Don heard Alex say, his eyes still closed. 

“Of course I am. Notice how I didn’t make him come in his pants,” Skip said and Don couldn’t hold in his laugh. “Oh sure you think it funny, you didn’t have to walk back here in that condition.” 

“I think you skipped a little bit there,” Don said, blinking his eyes open to look at Skip. 

“Yeah, the part where I made you see God,” Alex agreed. 

Skip rolled his eyes. “He’s never not going to be smug about that. So after we peeled my cum soaked pants off,” apparently Skip wasn’t going to let that one go anytime soon, “he started teasing his fingers just behind my balls.” 

Don shuddered a bit when he felt Alex’s fingers in the same spot. 

“Don’t worry, baby. I got you,” Alex whispered, his breath ghosting against Don’s ear. Don heard the lube bottle click open. 

“He slicked up his fingers,” Skip continued, “and started tracing around my hole.” 

Don hissed a breath through his teeth because the lube wasn’t exactly warm. 

“Aww baby,” Alex whispered. “You’ve done this before haven’t you? Opening up so pretty for me.” 

“You have?” and Don wasn’t mistaken, Skip sounded a little jealous. 

“By myself,” Don clarified. 

“Want to see you like that sometime,” Alex said, because of course he did. Alex always loved a show. “Did you think of me?” 

“Yes,” Don moaned as Alex started to insert his finger into Don. Don reached out for Skip, who had a closed off look his face. Don smoothed his fingers over Skip’s hip almost petting. “Thought of you too. Always think of both of you,” Don whispered. 

“Yeah?” Skip asked, his eyes brightening considerably. “And what was I doing?” 

Rather than answering, Don leaned forward and Skip took the hint and leaned in to kiss Don. Skip was always easy for kisses, opening up under them and letting them take over his mouth. Don pulled back with a gasp when he felt Alex start to add a second finger. 

Skip smiled. “He’s sneaky like that.” 

Alex’s fingers pressed against Don’s prostate. 

“Fuck, Alex,” Don hissed, his hips pushing back into Alex’s hand. 

“Moan my name like that when you are alone?” Alex asked, continuing to press against Don’s prostate. “Hope you do. Sounds so pretty when you do that.” 

“He likes when you say his name,” Skip said, nuzzling his nose against Don’s. As he leaned into Don, he felt Skip’s leg brush against his renewed erection. Don fucked forward into Skip’s thigh. 

“I think he’s ready for another finger, don’t you Skip?” Alex asked. 

“Fuck,” Don hissed, his hips snapping forward into Skip’s leg. 

“Aww baby,” Alex asked, a third finger tracing a third finger around his hole. “Do you like it when we talk about you like that?” 

Don whined, pushing his hips back into Alex so he’d quit fucking teasing. 

“Oh baby, the fun we are going to have,” Alex said before he nipped on his ear. “We’ll play with all the new things you like.” Alex finally started to press in his third finger. 

“He’s good at that,” Skip said in a soft soothing voice. “He always seemed to know just how to take care of me. Remember the first time he held me down-” 

Don made a noise later that he would deny later as a whimper, and Alex’s third finger slid home. “Jesus, can’t wait to watch you take Skip’s fingers,” Alex said, his fingers spreading out. 

Don slumped forward onto Skip’s shoulder, mouthing at the skin he found there. Skip’s fingers came up the stroke the hair at the base of Don’s neck. He turned his head into Skip’s gentle fingers. 

“You ready for me baby?” Alex asked. “Need to hear you say it.” 

“Fuck me, Alex,” Don replied, pushing his hips back. 

“Oh baby, the fun we will have.” Alex reached for a condom and tore the packet open with his teeth. Don could hear the foil crinkle and could hear Alex sliding on the condom and the wet sound of him slicking up his dick. 

“If it hurts-” Alex started.   
“I will,” Don nodded to make sure Alex knew he understood. 

Alex pulled out his fingers and before Don could miss the full feeling, Alex started slowly sliding into Don. He seemed to move agonizingly slowly but finally Don felt the press of Alex’s hips against his ass. 

“Tell me when you are ready,” Alex whispered against his ear. “Use your words for me.” 

Don nodded, and took a deep breath, still feeling the gentle touch of Skip’s fingers. Don rolled his hips, getting used to the feeling. 

“Yeah,” Don breathed. “Ready.” 

Alex pressed an opened mouth kiss against Don’s neck. He started slowly with short shallow thrusts, allowing Don to get used to the feeling. Don started to thrust back and just as he had reached the point of beginning, Alex thrust in harder, and Don felt the bed rock with the motion. They kept that rhythm, the bed sliding beneath them and Don’s hands braced on Skip’s hips. Skip picked up the discarded lube and squirted some into his open palm before wrapping his hand around Don’s dick. Now Alex’s sharp thrusts pushed him forward into the warm firm grip of Skip’s hand. It was the combined sensation that finally pushed Don over the edge. As he came he felt Alex’s fingers grip tighter against his hips. That combined with the stutter of Alex’s hips was the warning that Don received before Alex filled up the condom. Don fell forward into Skip and as he did so, he felt Alex slid out on him. 

Skip’s ever soothing fingers slipped through his hair, whispering into his ear. When he lifted his head and moved, he felt Skip’s still hard cock brush against his leg. 

“Aww, we haven’t done a very good job of taking care of you,” Don said as he wiped the come off his stomach before he reached for Skip’s dick.

“Oh shit,” Skip hissed. 

“We’ll have to make it up to you,” Alex said from where he was leaning back against the headboard. “Get the kid out of here early and let Don bend you over the bed.” 

Skip’s breathing accelerated and Don could tell he was close. 

“If we’re fast enough maybe Alex could have a turn too?” 

Don had never seen a question have that much of an affect on a person. Skip practically shook apart with his orgasm. The three of them lapsed into silence, the sound of Skip’s breathing evening out the only sound until finally Alex predictively broke the silence. 

“We good again?” He asked, his foot nudging Don so that he would know he was talking to him. 

“Course we are,” Don replied. “I could never stay mad at you.”


	18. Seventeen

“I think you should have sex,” Don said and just like that he had the sudden undivided attention of both of his boyfriends. “I mean not right this second,” Don clarified but since their posture didn’t change Don realized that wasn’t what had surprised them. It probably had something to do with the fact that he said this in the middle of the Atlanta airport. But he decided to plow through it. He'd been thinking about this a bit since their fight and make up. So he was going to get this all out, and then they could disagree with him. “I mean when you are living together, or living near each other in dorms, whatever. I think it would be ok with me if you had sex.” 

“Wait,” Alex rubbed his nose. “Didn’t we just have a fight about a hickie?” 

“No,” Skip said, touching Alex’s wrist. “We had a fight about keeping things from Don. The hickey was a visible representation of the keeping things from Don. I think Don expects us to share.” Skip’s repeated eyebrow raise made it clear he seemed to understand where Don was going with this. 

“That’s part of it.” Don rubbed the back of his neck. 

“So you are expecting dirty phone calls once a week?” Alex was practically learning. 

“I think we can do better than phone calls,” Skip smiled. “I believe I can find it in me to pose for a few tasteful dirty snaps.” 

“Oh shit,” Don said. “I’d...please.” 

“Anything for you, dear,” Skip said, patting his leg. 

“You really sure that you are going to be ok with this?” Alex asked, always the adult when he and Skip got lost in something. 

“Yeah.” Don nodded trying to be as serious as he could given the fact that Skip had just mentioned sending him nudes. “I want to be involved in anyway I can, because I think it will make this year easier for me. You know, having a distraction from senior year.” 

Alex nodded. “Are you going to go back to camp next year?”

Don had thought about that too. Part of him knew that it would be painful in a way he couldn’t imagine now. He’d never been there without Skip and Alex. But then he knew that he couldn’t spend the summer home with his family. And it would be nice the see his friends again, be there for Roe, and maybe not get taken out by zombies in the first round. 

Don nodded, “I can’t stay with you and I can’t stay with my family, so it is really the best option that I have.” 

Skip mirrored his nod but his eyes were sad. “It will probably be nice to have a long fishing trip before freshman year. I keep hearing it can be stressful.” 

“It won’t be the same without you,” Don said. “Until then I’m going to figure out every way I can to get to the UO campus as often as I can.” 

“We can come to you too,” Alex said. “You know we will be grown college students with cars and stuff. It’s only a couple hours.” 

“And then what? A trashy motel?” Don asked. 

“No, baby,” Alex said. “If the three of us went in on it, we could probably get something clean.” 

Don laughed. “You know, I actually think I have a friend that will lie for me in the interest getting laid. Fuck knows I’ve done it for him enough.” 

“See? The plan is all coming together,” Skip said. “A plan involving tasteful nudes and rooms that charge by the hour.” 

“It will get classy later,” Alex said, trying to console Skip. “This time next year Don will be getting ready to move into a dorm and we will have our own apartment. And everything that seems like a problem now will seem ridiculous. I mean, as far as I’m concerned, that will be Don’s dorm room in name only.”

Skip seemed to perk up a bit, he always did when they talked about the apartment. “It will be weird to be without you again. I don’t know if we would have made it this long without the two of us becoming the three of us. We need you to make this work, and I think it’s important that you hear that in person before we are,” Skip paused for a moment like he wasn’t sure what word he wanted. “Apart,” he finally settled on. 

“He’s right,” Alex said. “It’s the three of use from now on, none of this will last without you.” 

“I know that now,” Don said. “I’m not sure I knew that at the start of the summer or when I lost my shit over a hickie. But I get it now, and that’s why I can say that I can do this. Handle knowing that the two of you carrying on without me isn’t really like that. I still get to be apart of it, maybe even get a live stream if we are lucky.” 

“We’re going to have to build up to that,” Skip said and he was blushing for the first time in long time that Don could remember. 

“We’ll get there,” Alex said with his usual air of confidence. “I don’t think there is anything we can’t get to, as long as it’s the three of us.” 

And Don knew in his heart that he agreed with everything Alex said.


	19. Eighteen

Don had just finished putting the last of his stuff into his footlocker when the door to the cabin opened up. When there was no loud greeting or greeting of any kind, he knew it must be his first year. He looked up from his footlocker to see a shorter boy, with the waves of dark curls sticking out from under his dark green baseball cap. His face was round and soft looking, and he had those same doe eyes that Roe carried around - the kind that made you want to hug him, if only so he wouldn’t look so sad. He had a duffel slung over his shoulder and his eyes were wide with attention. Don was glad he’d gotten here first, he’d have some time to settle him in before Babe and Roe, just like Buck had with him. 

“You must be Spina,” he said. 

When he spoke the boy snapped his head in Don’s direction, as if he hadn’t seen him kneeling in front of his footlocker. The boy nodded then. “Yeah, Ralph Spina.” 

“Nice to meet you,” Don said, getting up so he could walk over and shake the kid’s hand. And it was genuinely nice to meet him, if only so he wouldn’t have to be the third wheel to the most perfect couple in camp. “I’m Don Malarkey. Don in here, Malarkey to everyone out there. You’ll find all the cabins are like that.” 

Spina nodded along, like he was taking it all in. 

“Well, let’s get you settled in,” Don said, resting his hand on Spina on the shoulder, and giving it a small squeeze. “What bed do you want?” he gestured to the two empty beds on the wall, knowing damn good and well that Babe wouldn’t be using either of them. He felt a little sad knowing they were on offer. 

“Can I have that one?” Spina asked, turning his body towards Alex’s old bed. 

“Sure you can,” Don said, guiding him by shoulder towards his new bed, though probably everyone else in the cabin would still think of it as Alex’s. “These are your sheets,” Don pointed to the folded pile on the bed. “We change ‘em out once a week so try and shower before you go to bed, gives you a better chance at warmer water too.” 

Spina nodded and tossed his duffel on the floor before he started making his bed. Don gave him a minute and started looking for his fishing tackle to make sure it had survived the trip. When the kid was done, Don turned to give him a hand with the footlocker. 

“This is yours,” he said, opening it up. “Mostly we stick to swim trunks during the day, they dry faster after the water activities. Shorts to dinner, pretty much everything after that you’ll figure out. We keep the cabin clean, we get points for it, and I’d really like to win this year because Skip thinks,” Don stopped realizing the kid would have no idea who that was. “A friend of mine thinks I won’t. So is there anything in here that wasn’t on the list?” Don touched the bag. 

Spina rubbed the back of his neck. “My mom bought me some Twizzlers.” The look on his face said he knew that this was a problem. 

“It’s cool, everyone has something,” Don said. “And every cabin has a way that they deal with it. Here in three we’ve always felt that that it’s best to keep it simple.” Don walked over to his own footlocker and removed his rain coat. It was folded up into the a fairly neat rectangle. Don set it down on the bed and unfolded the coat to reveal several packs of gum and a couple of candy bars. “See everyone has something, your roommates are probably going to arrive carrying their weight in M&Ms so don’t worry about it.” 

Spina smiled and that was a nice to see. It was nice knowing he could put this boy at ease. 

“That’s pretty much it,” Don said looking around the room incase he missed something. “Well, until the dynamic duo shows up. Then we’ll give you a tour and go to our orientation meeting. Until then I’m going to sort out my fishing stuff. I wish I were more exciting.”

And that was how Don found himself teaching Spina how to assemble and string a fishing pole when Babe walked in with Roe following close behind. 

“Ahh Babe, Roe, this is Ralph Spina, our first year.” Don gestured to the kid next to him. Why he did that he couldn’t say, obviously that was the only other person in the room. “Spina, this Babe Heffron and Eugene Roe.”

“Hi,” Spina said, giving a small wave before returning his attention to the fishing pole. The kid seemed genuinely interested and that was something. 

“Hey,” Babe said, returning the gesture. Roe managed a small nod, shyness still not completely gone from the year before. But they had all summer to work on it. 

“Don, is it cool if we take the bed by the window?” Babe said, nodding his head in the direction of Roe’s old bed. He looked earnestly hopeful that Skip-laissez-faire attitude about sharing a bed would continue. 

And who was Don to say no to that face. “Yeah, that’s cool. Maybe make one of the others in case we get an inspection.” 

“Cool,” Babe practically bounced over to make up the bed across from Roe’s.

Don turned to Spina and quickly saw understanding there but clarified away. “They’re dating so they share a bed.”

“Oh,” Spina nodded at first but realized when he noticed that the other two had paused that words might actually be required added, “That’s cool.” 

Don almost laughed at the light pink dusting of a blush that spread across Roe’s cheeks as he finished making what was to be their bed, for this summer and probably a few more to come.


	20. Nineteen

Don leaned back against the doorframe of his cabin with a sigh. He looked at his left wrist, green bandana still tied firmly around it. He smiled as he worked the knot undone and pulled the fabric from his wrist. He smoothed the half fold on his legs that spread out in front of him. He’d always known he could do it, if he didn’t have Skip and Alex seducing him over to the dark side. The look on Liebgott’s face had been priceless.

“Everyone is looking for you.”

Don looked up from his daydream to see Roe standing at the bottom of the stairs, green bandana still tied around his head. “Well not everyone,” he amended. “Mostly just Guarnere and Toye. I told them I’d tell you that if I found you so there you go.” Roe sat down on the other side of the doorframe and started pulling the knot free on his bandana. “Congratulations by way,” Roe nodded towards the fabric spread out on Don’s knees. 

“Thanks,” Don smoothed out the fabric again. “I’d thought it would be cool to win it my first year. But then thanks Muck and Penk, I was too distracted to focus on how to play the game.”

“No judgement,” Roe said, rubbing the back of his neck. Don wasn’t sure which one of them had bit the bar first but he was pretty sure the other one was probably turned in the next thirty seconds. “How are Muck and Penk these days?” 

It was a poor attempt to change the subject from the fact that he couldn’t keep his hands off his boyfriend, but Don decided that he was going to let him have it. “They’re ok, both taking summer classes, since apparently we are going to do something epic next summer so they won’t get a chance.” 

“I know what it is,” Roe said sounding a little smug. At Don’s raised eyebrow he continued, “You know it’s easier for Muck to keep a secret if he tells someone. And I didn’t tell Babe so try all you want, you’ll get nothing out of him.” 

Don made a disappointed noise. “And here I thought you were going to be on my side. Where is your other half by the way?” 

“Fell in the mud,” Roe said matter a factly.

Don laughed. “It was nice to see the two of you come back so clearly together.” 

Roe smiled. “Pretty sure I couldn’t shake him at this point if I tried.” 

“Since his parents let him come down early, does that mean they’re cool?” Don asked.

“They aren’t really anything,” Ron said with a shrug. “They seemed not to get it when I came up there, so Mama thought it was best just to let them think what they want. It’s hard to if they don’t see it or if they are just pretending they don’t so they don’t have to do anything.” 

Don understood that all too well. “If it makes you feel better I haven’t told my mom yet. I know my uncle will take it about as badly as you can, but I have not idea how to read my mother so I always figured it was safer not to tell her.” 

“Do you think you ever will?” Roe asked. He didn’t sound judgemental just curious. 

“I suppose I’ll have to at some point. Probably about the point when it because weird for three guys to live together after they have all graduated.” Don answered. “I’m not looking forward to it. The unknown makes it scary, because once you know that about a person you can’t unknow it. I remember the first time I heard my uncle call someone a fag. I imagine it had the same emotional feeling as a car crash. I’ve never looked at him the same way after that, because I know if he knew I’d just be a fag after that. I don’t want to know that about my mom, I don’t want to see her that way. When you’re already down one parent, you’ll do anything to hold onto the last one, even lie.” 

Roe signed and they sat there in silence for a moment before Roe spoke, “I was hoping you’d say it’d get better. That was naive. I know that, but I’d hoped you’d have a silver lining in all these clouds. Babe loves his family so much…” Roe trailed off, looking out over the campground. Looking, but probably not seeing. 

Don reached over and squeezed Roe’s knee. “Babe’s a big boy,” he said when Roe looked at him. “He’s a big a boy and he can make his own choices. He knew, first time he laid one eye on you, he knew. And don’t try and tell me he didn’t make the first move because I know he did.” Don joked trying to lighten the mood. “He knew that this was something he’d have to keep from them. He knew and he did it anyway. He picked you, and you don’t have to feel bad about that. Babe looks at you like you’re the sun, so I promise you he doesn’t feel bad. Ok?” Don asked.

“Ok,” Roe said, he was trying to smile but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. 

He watched the smile travel the distance when he heard Babe yell, “You know Bill and Toye are looking for you?” as he walked up the sidewalk toward the cabin.


	21. Twenty

“SURPRISE!” 

Don actually took a step back and placed his hand over his heart in fake surprise. He’d known what was coming when Roe and Babe had run off right after dinner, Babe practically dragging Ralph after him. He could hear that the kid was asking questions but he couldn’t hear what was being said. He’d walked slowly after them and even stopped to talk to Luz for no other reason then to buy time. 

Once again Mama Roe had sent decorations though she seemed to have figured out that the camp had a favorite color because she’d gone with green this time. There, sitting on a footlocker was a cake, the smaller size like last year, and it was chocolate icing again, but in keeping with the color scheme “Happy Birthday Don!” was in green frosting. 

Next to the cake was something new. It was a gift, actually wrapped in wrapping paper and too much tape. 

“Thanks guys,” he said because he was touched that they still remembered without his boyfriends pulling the strings. 

A chorus of you’re welcomes was the response before Babe picked up the present and handed it to him. “Here open this first. It’s from Muck and Penk.” 

Don took the box now knowing exactly what it was. Roe had a knowing smile that said he’d reached the same conclusion. But Babe didn’t seem to know and Ralph actually looked excited. He didn’t have to fake surprise this time, not because he wasn’t sure what he’d find under the paper but because Skip and Alex had actually thought to send him a box of Twinkies. 

“Twinkies,”Babe said, sounding surprised.

“It’s an inside thing, I think,” Roe said as he opened the candles. 

“Our first summer here, my first summer here,” Don corrected. “Penk had his sister mail him a box of Twinkies and candles when he found out it was my birthday.”

“Ahh,” Babe said, taking a match out of his pocket and striking it on the side of the footlocker. He lit one of the extra candles from the package and then used that to light all the other candles. When he was finished, he stuck that candle down in the center of the cake inside the o of Don. 

“We’re going to spare you the singing,” Roe said and Babe looked a little disappointed by this news. 

“Oh ok, good wish since it’s on a cake,” Don said to no one in particular. He leaned forward and blew out his candles and wished that these three boys would be happy. That Babe and Roe would stay together and Ralph would find a girl. He didn’t need to wish for his own relationship anymore, it was just waiting for him to get home. 

He pulled one of the candles out of the cake to lick the frosting off the base as Roe produced dental floss to cut the cake. 

“We’ll save these,” Don said, picking up the box of Twinkies to place them in his footlocker. “Have ‘em after dinner tomorrow.” He hid them under his t-shirts. Not his best work but Sobel was gone this week for some reason or another so it would do for now. 

“Gonna leave the empty box for Sobel to find?” Babe asked, sounding giddy about the idea. 

“I don’t know,” Don said, that had been more an Alex gag then his. “You don’t get to see the big payoff and I hate letting him think he’s won even for a second.” 

“Not to mention he keeps the socks,” Roe said, handing Don his piece of cake. 

Babe made a considering noise. “And if we leave him alone, we might actually win cabin of the camp.” 

Don made a dismissive noise. “I doubt it kid. They’ll probably give it to four.” 

“That’s bribing the refs,” Spina said. “Just because Speirs and Walsh were in that cabin-”

“It’s not quite like that,” Don said, finding it odd he was standing up for Speirs. “See, Bull won it last year so they’ll give it Grant so that both of them have a win on their counselor applications. So it’s still favoritism but it has a purpose. They couldn’t give it to four last year because there was an incident.”

“Was it the ATV or the fist fight?” Babe asked and Ralph’s eyes got bigger if that was possible. 

“ATV,” Roe said with some certainty, gesturing with his fork “I feel like they’d have given it to them to apologize for the fist fight, but after the ATV they couldn’t.” 

“You know Penk had commandeered an ATV at least once a week to give us something to do while Muck was at the staff meetings and we never popped a tire.” Don shook his head. 

“How did you do that,” Babe asked. 

Don shrugged. “Dike never locked the shed.” 

Babe seemed disappointed by that answer. 

“I hate to break it to you kid, but most of Penk’s magic was pretty practical,” Don said. 

“But strangely brilliant,” Roe said. “I mean that farmhouse was pretty clever.” 

“He told you about the farmhouse?” Don said, sounding a little surprised. Alex had always been reluctant to share his tricks. 

“Yeah, how else did you think we got the Twinkies,” Babe asked. 

“So’d you leave ‘em with Lip,” Don asked was to gauge their level of deviousness. 

Ralph shook his head. “Babe’s been hiding ‘em here. You’d be surprised what you can get away with when your cabin leader is avoiding you so you can’t turn him into a zombie.” 

Don laughed knowing his cabin would be just fine without him next year.


	22. Twenty One

“You know, I honestly didn’t think you’d come back this year.” Don heard Buck say over his shoulder. 

Don was sitting at the end of the fishing dock. Where he could be found most nights over the summer. His toes in the water, pretending that he was actually trying to catch something. But tonight was the last night. Tomorrow Don would get on a plane and return to his life. And then it was one week until he was off to college and Skip and Alex. 

Buck sat down next to him, placing a cooler behind them. “What is about to happen stays between the two of us.” 

Buck opened the cooler to reveal a six pack of beer. “Oh don’t look surprised. You start college in a month, I’m hardly going to be the last person to offer you beer.” 

Don shrugged, and decided not mention that he wasn’t the first as he removed and opened a can from the cooler. 

“Any chance I can get you to come back next year?” Buck asked, opening the beer and taking a swig. 

“Not in your life,” Don said, laughter teasing it’s way into his voice, before taking his own pull of his beer. 

“Ahh well. I told Lip I’d ask,” Buck said as he dipped his feet into the water. “I told him you’d tell me to go fuck myself, but I told him I’d ask.” 

Don laughed. “You know Grant and Bull are actually interested in these jobs.”

“I think Lip wanted you to feel asked,” Buck said. “You’ve done a great job this year, and you’d actually be good at this, but you’d hate every second of it so I didn’t see the point in asking.” 

“What can I say. My cabin is a well oiled machine,” Don said, holding a hand over his chest, know that most of that wasn’t his doing. Roe had seemed to take to Ralph and since they both couldn’t shoot to save their lives a bond formed. And demonstrating shocking maturity, Babe didn’t seem jealous at all. Don wished he’d been that self secure at sixteen. Hell, or eighteen. 

“It’s been noticed,” Buck said. 

“I can’t take all the credit,” Don admitted. “I’m leaving our cabin in very capable hands. Pick Babe, pick Roe...they are going to run it by committee just like we did last year.” 

Buck nodded. “It’s not going to be the same without you guys. Feels like the last of the old guard is slipping away.” 

And Don understood what he meant. It had already felt different this year without Winters and Nixon. Though Don was reluctant to admit that he hated things under Speirs less than he thought he would. Skip and Alex were gone and Guarnere and Toye were going to follow him out the door. And Don had a feeling that if he didn’t stay, they’d probably be replacing Buck sooner rather then later, that or he’d declare for the draft. It was a changing of the guard, and while Don thought the future looked bright, he didn’t really see a need for him to be apart of it. He’d secured the future of cabin three, and that felt like enough. 

“It’s a good group of guys though,” Don said, taking another drink of his beer. 

Buck laughed. “Yours is. Two is good, one is unknown, and four has always been a problem.” 

Don laughed, because it was true. Babe and Roe would be fine. And Bull had raised his kids right. One was mostly leaving this year. Four had always been an island on it’s own. And while Hoobler seemed to have his own leadership style, different Speirs and Grant, their new kid was still a handful and he doubted four would do anything to change that. Don was glad he wouldn’t be around to see Hoobler pass the torch. 

“And you want to sell me on staying.” Don shook his head. 

Buck laughed. “I knew you wouldn’t. There isn’t a thing I could offer you that could stand a chance against Muck and Penk. I get it, if I had a steady girl, it would be hard to come out here.” 

“Aww, no future Mrs. Compton yet?” Don asked. 

Buck shrugged. “I have no fucking idea what I’m doing.” Buck took a long swig of beer. “So I told you I met this girl, right? Had a boyfriend.” 

“Had,” Don said smiling. “Had is good.” 

“Yeah, had is good you know if you have a life, and more than 15 minutes on a Monday to spend with girl. Had would be great if I didn’t have baseball.” Buck shrugged. 

“Ahh the other woman,” Don nodded. 

Buck gave a snort of laughter. “And she’s the jealous kind.” 

“So you just did nothing,” Don asked, “because I’m a little disappointed. I mean I’ve always thought you had game.” 

Buck laughed. “I mean not nothing, we’ve been out a couple of times. Nothing serious, hard to know if she’ll still be interested in the fall. If she is, we could probably have a go of it. Fall is less crazy. Fuckin’ dumbass boyfriend had to dump her in the beginning of February. Like goddamn it, right before season starts.” 

“How inconsiderate of him,” Don deadpanned. “You should still try. Turn on that Compton charm on her. See if she goes for it.” 

“I will,” Buck nodded sounding serious. “If absence really made the heart grow fonder, I’ll really try it.” 

“Wow,” Don said. “Both of us in committed relationships, who knew we’d grow up so fast.” 

“Well, it had to happen sometimes,” Buck said, staring out at the sunset. “Had to happen sometime.”


	23. Twenty Two

“Skip is going to be so pissed at you,” Don said as Alex pulled him roughly inside the apartment that Don had never seen after Alex had french kissed him in the hallway until one of their neighbors came home with her landry. “Because I’m pretty sure the swollen lips are going to give us away.”

“Well, that will teach him to agree to a shift on your first night here,” Alex said as he flopped down on their sofa and pulled Don roughly down into his lap. “Besides, he’s on his way.”

“On his way isn’t here,” Don gasped as Alex rolled his hips up into him. He rolled his head back as he felt Alex’s breath on his neck. Alex pressed a smile against his skin.

Alex nipped at Don’s neck, not hard enough to give him a hickey for freshmen orientation but the night was young. Don shivered as he did this because he’d missed them. It’d been over a year since he had this kind of contact and he was hungry for it. He fisted his fingers in Alex’s t-shirt that he wanted gone. Either Skip would be pissed or not. 

“We can go slow,” Alex said, as he grabbed Don’s ass and squeezed as he rolled his hips against him. 

Don reached up to grab Alex’s hair and pull his head back off his neck. “That’s really not going to help.” He could see Alex had a response for him but cut him off with a kiss. Alex wrapped his arm around Don to pull him closer and Don pushed a moan into his mouth. When Don pulled back for air, Alex started pressing open mouthed kisses along Don’s throat.

Don gasped, “We should really stop.” 

Alex’s response was to suck on the skin below Don’s ear, and Don could tell this one was going to give him a mark. “So stop,” Alex said and at first Don wasn’t sure what he meant but then he realized that he’d been rolling his hips into Alex’s for who knows how long. He gasped again when he felt Alex’s fingers teasing below the waistband of his jeans. 

Don’s fingers combed through Alex’s hair, nails scratching gently at Alex’s scalp. Alex shivered under him, and Don filed that reaction away for later. 

“I knew you fuckers wouldn’t wait.” 

Don turned to see Skip standing just inside the door of their apartment. He didn’t look annoyed. He looked turned on and Don didn’t know how long he’d been standing there but now that he’s home all Don wanted was to press his body up against him and suck face just like he’d done with Alex in the hallway. 

“How about we take this to the bedroom?” Alex asked, pulling Don’t attention back to him as he played with the button of Don’s jeans. “More room there.” 

Don sighed and pushed himself out of Alex’s lap, using Alex’s shoulders for leverage. “Bedroom,” he said, mostly as a reminder that there are good things ahead if he could just get himself off Alex’s lap. 

Skip was scowling slightly when he asked, “Did you even give him the tour?”

Don was all smiles for him, coming into Skip’s space so he could wrap his arms around his waist and tuck Skip against him. “Hi, I missed you.” 

Skip moaned softly, “I can never stay mad at you.” Don went in for the kiss just because he could and Skip was soft and pliant against him, always willing to let one of them take the lead. Don didn’t rush this, the remapping of Skip’s mouth. He didn’t rush because he knew Alex could see them, knew Alex liked to watch them. When Skip finally pulled back for air, his lips were wet and shining with saliva and it made him want to do it again. “Come on,” Skip said. “Let’s go to the bedroom.” 

It was through a door off the back of the living room but that was really all that Don noticed as he trailed after his boyfriends. There would be time for the grand tour later after sex. Alex flopped down on the bed first, sliding back so he was leaning against the headboard, legs stretched out in front of him. “Come here, baby,” he said and Don was about to ask which baby he wanted when Alex said, “Let me make it up to you.” And Don knew he meant Skip because Alex hadn’t done anything to him lately besides give him a hickey he won’t be able to hide. 

Skip was trying to play it like he was hurt but he was too eager for it so he practically bounced into Alex’s lap. Alex’s hands came up to frame Skip’s face and pulled him in for hungry kisses and as always Skip was easy for it. Skip brought his hand up to tangle in Alex’s hair, mirroring Don’s actions from the couch. And Don just stood there for a moment drinking them in, enjoying that he could have this again, and that now they have all the time in the world to enjoy it. 

But he started to feel lonely when Skip moaned into Alex’s mouth and rolled his hips forward so Don decided it was time to invite himself to the party. He crawled onto the bed behind Skip, straddling Alex’s legs. He tucked in behind Skip and decided that the best way to announce his presence was to rub his hand over Skip’s crotch. Skip gasped and leaned his head back onto Don’s shoulder. Alex didn’t seem bothered. He just leant in to press open mouthed kisses at Skip’s neck and Don knew he wouldn’t be the only one with hickies he couldn’t hide in the morning. Skip moaned, and Don gripped his hip with his free hand. 

“So much better with you here,” Skip gasped, as he removed one of his hands from Alex’s hair so he could slide those same fingers though Don’s. 

“He’s right, you know,” Alex agreed, and Don could feel his hand between him and Skip as Alex stuck his hand down the back of Skip’s pants. 

Skip whined, and Don knew it was because he’d been used to things being faster. Don leaned down and licked the shell of Skip’s ear because he wanted skin too but he was willing to wait for it. They had time. Alex seemed a little more impatient or maybe he just needed more room to work, because he removed his hand from Skip’s pants and and undid them before sliding his hand back inside Skip’s boxers. 

“I’m always right,” Skip said and right now no one argued. Skip turned his head and Don knew what he was after so he leaned into kiss him. 

Don knew Alex was watching as Don dragged a hand over Skip’s thighs before ghosting his palm over Skip’s crotch. 

Alex sounded pleased with himself when he whispered, “So fucking sexy in between us, baby.” Don could feel him squeeze Skip’s ass where his hand was still inside Skip’s pants. 

Skip’s moan was muffled in Don’s mouth as Skip rolled his hips down into Alex. Don hummed into Skip’s mouth, so glad to have a body pressed against him again. He tucked his hand inside Skip’s pants, two of his fingers brushing Alex’s as he did so. Skip moaned when they both squeezed his ass. 

“You should ask him,” Alex whispered and since that made no sense to Don, he knew he was talking to Skip. 

Don squeezed Skip’s ass again, trying to encourage Skip without pulling his lips away from Skip’s. He didn’t know what the question was but he couldn’t imagine he’d say no. 

He felt Alex’s fingers move against his so he followed and pressed one of his fingers against Skip’s hole while Alex did the same. 

“Come on, baby. Ask him,” Alex repeated. “Ask him, you know he likes to please you.” 

“Fuck,” Skip whined, the dirty talk always got to him. “Want you to fuck me.” 

Don pressed his finger again as a reward and Skip gave a little cry. “I can do that,” he said, confused as to why Skip needed prompting for that, but enjoying it all the same because it was hot when Skip asked for things. 

Alex didn’t look as pleased. “No, come on, baby. Use your words. That’s not what you really want.” 

Skips whimpered, and Don pressed his finger harder and felt Alex’s fingers move as he does the same. 

Skip shook a bit in between them before he spoke again. “Want you both to fuck me.” He pressed his face against Don like he was embarrassed now. And Don thought maybe he got why. They had done that once right before the end of their last summer. Alex had gone first and then Don had taken his turn. Skip had been so gone for it - his second orgasm hit him so hard Don thought he was going to shake apart. 

Don kissed the corner of Skip’s mouth. “Yeah baby, we can do that. Like that last time?” Don asked. Alex always pressed Skip, making him say things out loud. Maybe it was because despite a couple of times, he was clearly the one in charge, or because he thinks it’s hot, Don didn’t know. Don takes an easier approach, a softer hand. He breaks it down to yes or no questions whenever he can.

“Tell him how you want it, baby. He doesn’t understand,” Alex said. Alex sounded out of breath and Don knew they are all dizzy for it but Alex was trying to do something here and Don knew it had to be important so he waited. 

Skip made a pained sound, like he does when Alex is pushing a limit. “Want you both,” He repeated softly and he licked his lips like he needed courage for this. “At the same time,” he finished softly. 

Don moaned before he dropped his head onto Skip’s shoulder. He knew that was not an answer but he couldn’t remember how words work. “I...woah...can we...can we even do that?” His fingers pressed against Skip’s hole again and Jesus he wants but surely that was something that only happened in porn. 

Skip was trembling. “Yes,” he whispered, pressing himself down into Don’s hand. 

“Fuck,” Don gasped, air leaving his lungs in a rush. 

“Can we please for the love of all that is holy get naked now?” Alex asked, pulling Don out of his trance. 

And just like that, they were back at summer camp. It was a race again, like the first person who got naked won a prize. They end up more or less back where they started. Alex was leaning back against the headboard and he had a lap full of Skip and Don is tucked behind him, pressing open mouthed kisses on Skip’s neck. And for the first time in a long time, he was kinda at a loss of what to do next. What Skip was asking for, while it sounded hotter than hell, was nowhere near what they’ve done before. Alex ran his hands over Skip’s legs and he was teasing him, getting his fingers high up his thighs before pulling back. He was watching Skip squirm and enjoying it. 

“You want to get him ready?” Alex asked and how was Don the one in charge here.

“I don’t-” he started to say but Alex cut him off. 

“You gotta get him ready for one dick first, before we worry about two.” And that made sense and made it easier for Don to breathe. 

So he took the lube that Alex gave him and tried to ignore the way his hand shook a little as he squeezed the lube out onto his fingers. He traced his finger around Skip’s hole and felt the opening shudder against him. Skip always went easy for the first finger. A little teasing and a deep breath on Skip’s and you’re usually off to the races. He wanted to make sure Skip was good and relaxed though so he didn't rush the second finger. He crooked his finger a bit, stroking Skip’s spot once he found it. He was about to add the second finger when he felt one of Alex’s fingers stroking around his finger. He moaned a little at this, thinking about what they were going to start doing together. 

Skip turned his head to look at Don and Don was weak to do anything but kiss him. When he felt Alex’s finger slide in next to his, Skip broke the kiss with moan. “Oh Jesus.” 

“You love it when we work together, don’t you,” Alex said. “Gonna love it even more when we fuck you together.” Don moaned partly at the the dirty talk and partly at the feeling Alex’s slick finger moving next to his. “Gonna work you over so good,” Alex added as an afterthought. 

Don could feel Skip nodding against his shoulder; Alex needed his agreement to make it so. Skip reached back to hold on to one of Don’t legs as he and Alex took turns slamming their fingers into his spot. Don mouthed along Skips shoulder, nipping around Alex’s marks that were starting to show. His lips moved against Skip’s neck as he asked, “Ready for another?”

Skip made a pleased nose and nodded before he found his words again. “Yeah,” he panted. “Ready.” 

There was a wicked smile on Alex’s face so Don let him take the lead. “Tell me if it’s too much,” Alex said in a surprisingly soft tone. 

Skip shook a bit when Alex started with the third finger and Don could tell by the look on Alex’s face that he noticed. They slow down for bit, Alex taking his time to slowly work in his second finger. After some resistance, it went easier until Alex finally got both inside and he slowly started to scissor his fingers apart. Don kept alternating pressure on Skip’s spot. Once Skip was moving with them again, Alex gave Don the go ahead to add a second finger of his own. As far as he knew, this was new territory for them. When he voiced that thought out loud, it turned out that no, Skip was full of surprises and that he’d been having Alex add extra fingers along side his dick now for the last couple of months. Which had to be the nicest graduation present Don had gotten. When he got his second finger in, he started to move his fingers the same as Alex did while Alex held his fingers still. It took longer this time before Alex started to add his third. He knew Skip was getting impatient, like they were working their way to some milestone but it didn’t feel like enough to Don. When Alex finally got his third finger in Skip, the noise that Skip made almost sounds like a sob. 

“You’re doing so good baby,” Alex reassured Skip and even he sounded a little breathless. “So good for us. Tell me when you’re ready.” 

“So good for us,” Don added just because he knew that Skip was a sucker for praise. He bit down on Skip’s shoulder to leave a mark of his own and to give Skip something else to focus on. Skip’s head rolled back onto Don’s shoulder giving Don a clear view of the look of concentration on Alex’s face. 

“Think you’re almost ready, baby?” And the fact that Don didn’t know what Skip should be ready for must show on his face because Alex continued. “He’s about ready for one of us, so I’ll go first and then once he’s settled you can start opening him up again.”

Don raked his teeth over his lip, starting to feel a little out of his depth again. Skip had the opposite reaction, letting out a pretty deep moan. 

Alex smiled at Skip, warm and bright. “So what do you say, baby. Ready to take a ride?”

Don swallowed hard at the question, not really knowing why he was nervous as he removed his fingers. 

It’s almost like Skip had to swim to the surface a bit to answer. “Been ready for ages.” His movements were a little shaky at first as he moved so Alex could get a condom on. Skip lubed it up for him before he guided himself into place. It went pretty easy, but then it should. Skip made a breathy gasp when Alex’s dick slid home. Even Alex seemed to struggle with the feeling for a bit, his hands clenching and unclenching on Skip’s legs. “Fuck, you feel good, baby,” he whispered. And Don couldn’t wait to find out how good for himself but he let them have their moment. He knew they would tell him when he was ready. 

Skip’s eyes were closed and his breath was still coming in short breathy gasps. Don knew there was part of him that probably wanted to say fuck it and ride Alex hard until they orgasmed their brains out. As if to demonstrate this point, Skip gave a roll of his hips. 

“Only because you’ve been good,” Alex said before thrusting up so hard that Skip whimpered. Alex picked up the discarded lube and handed it back to Don. 

He didn’t mention how Don’s hands shook and for that he was grateful. “You’re so hot like this,” he whispered to Skip. “Love that you would do something like this for us.” Skip whimpered as he leant forward to brace his hands on Alex’s pecks and Don was sure this was how it’d gone before, and there were no words to describe how hot that was. 

Alex brought his hand off Skips leg to stroke his arm and up to his neck. Skip bent his arms and Alex closed the distance for a kiss. It was an especially dirty kiss, the kind that was more a show for Don then it was anything else. He got a little of his own back when he started teasing a finger around Skip’s rim. He watched Skip’s mouth drop open. 

“Different when he’s doing it?” Alex asked. “Different when you know it’s Don going in, rather than just that wicked imagination of yours?” When Don finally got his finger inside though, even Alex had a loss for words as he shuddered when Don slid his finger in. 

Skip was still panting against Alex’s mouth, and Alex brought his hand up to stroke Skip’s back. Don watched as Alex’s fingers danced down Skip’s spine. “Doing so good for us, baby.” Alex kissed Skip again, licking his way into his mouth. Skip’s fingers drew up, his blunt nails pressing into Alex’s chest. Don carefully started to work his second finger in, sensing that Skip was distracted. 

“Shit, Skip,” Don swore because it was so much. “You are so good for us, can’t believe you are doing this for us.” 

His dirty talk seemed well received as it was met with a chorus of moans. “Don,” Skip gasped. “Come on.” 

Don didn’t know if that meant he thought he was ready, but Don was giving him another finger just to be safe. Feeling his fingers slide along the smooth latex covering Alex’s dick was a little overwhelming, knowing what comes next. When Skip started moving again, he figured he was actually ready. This was confirmed to him when Alex tapped his leg and placed a condom beside it. Don slipped his fingers out and rolled the condom on. The whole room let out a rush of air when Don started to push his dick by Skip’s rim. 

“Fuck,” Skip breathed against what is probably Alex’s cheek. Don waited until his breathing started to even out. Don watched as Alex’s fingers tightened on Skip’s leg. He moaned when Don pushed forward as Skip panted against his face. He was taking it slow, trying to read the way that Skip breathed and watching the muscles in his back shift and ease. But finally he made it sliding in right beside Alex. 

He rubbed his hand over Skip’s back, slick with sweat. “You ok, Skip?” Don’s own voice sounded strange to his ears, insistent as he made sure Skip was ok. 

Skip nodded but Don waited for words, and he knew Skip knew what he was waiting for. Finally Skip’s voice came, sounding as shaky as Don’s. “Yeah. Fuck, yeah.” 

“So good, baby,” Alex said, his fingers stroking Skip’s leg. “You are so good for us, always so good for us. Tell us when you’re ready. Won’t do anything until you say.” 

“So sexy, Skip,” Don added, knowing Skip liked hearing that. “Wish you could see how you look.” 

Skip moved his head, his nose dragging against Alex’s nose. His breath was still coming in sharp little pants. “Ready,” he said. “Yeah, I’m ready.”

Don and Alex exchanged looks of understanding, so Don tried to start some small movements. It hardly felt like anything more of a shift then a thrust but the movement was met by a chorus of movements. Skip’s head snapped up as he moaned. 

“You ok, Skip?” Don asked through clenched teeth. “Too much?” 

“It’s ok,” Skip said, sounding a little frantic that Don might stop. “It’s ok, it’s ok. Move.” His fingers were dancing on Alex’s chest again, nails pressing against skin. 

Alex moaned, “Fuck.” His fingers pressing hard enough that Skip would probably have bruises on his skin in the morning. 

Don decided that it was time for a thrust and the moan that Skip gave in response reinforced this decision. 

“He’s been waiting for this,” Alex said between pants. “Waiting for you come here so we could try it.” 

Don made a noise that he would deny later, but it was hot thinking about them building up to this and knowing he’d be a part of it. 

“Fuck,” Skip whimpered. 

“Finally, got what you wanted,” Alex said through gritted teeth. 

Skip gave a cry, his hips thrusting forward and they all moaned. “Feels so good,” he gasped. “Both of you, feels good.” 

Once Skip started moving his hips, Don knew he was goner. “Shit...fuck...I’m gonna.” 

Alex moaned and he sounded broken so he knew that he was not the only one who was not going to last much longer. 

Skip bared his neck again for Alex, and Alex took advantage of this to lick the skin before he started to leave another mark on Skip’s skin. 

“Come on, baby. You’ve been so good.” Alex’s voice sounded scraped and rough against the skin of Skip’s neck. 

“Fuck,” Skip slurred before he let out a broken sob like moan. His body clenched around them as he came across Alex’s clenched stomach. Don came next, his breath coming in gasps against the damp skin of Skip’s shoulder. He watched as Alex thrust up as he came last his neck bared as his head snapped back and Don wished idly that he could suck a mark there in the interest of fair play. 

It’s like they were all floating for a moment, until Skip’s arms gave out and he ended up spread against Alex’s chest and honestly Don was a little scared to move once again aware of the complexity of this position. He knew if they didn’t move soon though, Skip and Ale were going to be stuck together. Don watched as Alex reached up to stroke his chest, suddenly aware it had been awhile since they have touched each other outside of Skip. 

It looked like he’s trying to find his words before he spoke. “Don,” he swallowed. “You pull out first.” 

Don was sure he’d never been so hyper aware of his movements as he slowly pulled out of Skip. He caught sight of Alex, his teeth biting into his lip as Don moved. Once he’d dumped the condom in the can besides the bed he helped Alex to lift Skip, who was pretty much dead weight, so he could slide out too. He tied his condom off and dropped it over the side of the bed, into what Don was pretty sure was the trash can. They settled Skip back against Alex’s chest because that seemed easiest. 

Don flopped next to them on the bed, his shoulder brushing against Alex’s as he settled in. He smiled at the pair of them fondly because they were his and because he could. 

“When I can feel my legs again I’ll get a towel,” Don said because it was clear that no one else was moving. 

“You can’t,” Skip slurred. “Someone didn’t give you the tour.” 

Everyone laughed at Skip’s joke, even Skip seemed to be chuckling softly. Don turned to cuddle into them, knowing someone was going to have to get up soon, but for right now he was just going to enjoy this moment with the two people that mattered most to him in the world.


	24. Twenty Three

Don woke up to kisses on his shoulder and while later that day he was probably going to feel romantic about it later, right now he just wanted to sleep. He grumbled something that was meant to be ‘Stop’, ‘No’, or just ‘Get the hell off me’, but he was pretty sure he didn’t produce actual words. 

Fingers stroked through his hair. “I know but you have to get up for that freshmen thing.” Ahh, so it was Skip then. Which was good because overall he’s just better at this stuff. If it was Alex, he would probably have ended up rolled onto the floor. And it helped that Skip was right. Don did have to get up and go to his freshmen orientation or he’d fail his freshman experience class before the school year really even started. But none of it meant he had to like this. 

An open mouthed kiss was placed at the base of his neck. “I know, but Alex is making eggs and you still smell like sex so…” He let the last bit trail off into a bunch of o’s, meaning that he should get up and take a shower before he had to face a future professor. Another open mouthed kiss followed but that it didn’t mean that it was any easier to get up. 

Don groaned, turning to face Skip. His hair was still a mess with sleep. It looked like he hadn’t really gotten out of bed. He was still wearing Alex’s boxers from the night before. And as predicted, they had done a number on his neck and shoulders, purple marks rising to the surface. Don reached his fingers up to brush over the marks. Skip smiled and turned his head so he could kiss Don’s wrist. 

“I don’t wanna get up.” Don tried not to whine but he knew he failed. 

Skip smiled and nodded. “I know, but you don’t want to fail either.” 

“Fuck,” Don groaned, dragging both his hands over his face. 

Skip was still smiling at him when he moved his hands. Skip slid closer to Don. Don reached out his hand, smoothing it over Skip’s cheek and up into his hair. He pulled Skip in for a kiss, sliding his tongue into Skip’s mouth. Skip moaned softly against him. 

“Is he up yet?” Alex called from what was probably the kitchen, halting the moment in its tracks. He wasn’t sure; he still hadn’t gotten that tour. Don sighed and made an effort to slide away from Skip, knowing that if he stayed there he’d never want to leave. 

“Working on it,” Skip called at the same time Don said, “Yeah, fuck it. I’m up.” There was the sound of soft laughter from the kitchen. 

Skip gave a small clap for him as he threw the covers off and slung his legs over the side of the bed. “That’s the spirit. It will be over before you know it.” 

“You know that’s really not how this works,” Don groaned , got up, and stretched his back. “How are you doing this morning?” Don asked in a tone that he hoped was suggestive. 

Skip’s smile got wider if that was possible. “Well, I’m glad I’m not the one that has to take a tour of the campus today, but with a day of bedrest I should be ok.” 

“Don’t worry about him so much,” said Alex from where he was now leaning against the door frame. “I’ll take care of him.” 

Skip made a pleased noise. “Looking forward to it.” 

Don rolled his eyes and he noticed Alex do the same. 

“After you get done with orientation, we can go over to your dorm and get your stuff,” Alex said. 

Don smiled. He’d had to move into his dorm with his family, but the plan had always been to get the things he really needed and move them over to Alex’s and Skip’s. 

“We saved you space in the closets and dresser,” Skip said, sounding pleased with himself.

Don couldn’t help but feel touched. There wasn’t a part of the process of picking this apartment that they had left him out of. They had made it clear since Skip moved out of the dorms that they were getting a place and that Don could live with them even if he couldn’t tell anyone. Don rubbed the back of his neck to hide the fact that he was feeling mushy. “I’m going to take a shower before one of you make me late and I fail the easiest class I’ll take in college.” 

“Door on the left,” Skip said. “Since we never did get around to giving you the tour.” 

Don laughed as he shook his head. The bathroom was actually nicer and cleaner than he thought it would be. 

“Towels are under the sink,” Skip called and sure enough there was a stack of gray towels under the sink. “And that red toothbrush on the counter is yours.” 

And there, sitting next to the toothbrush holder with one green and one blue was a red toothbrush. There was something strangely sweet about that. It was probably something that neither Skip nor Alex gave a lot of thought to. But to him it was a symbol of how easily they fit together. How easy it was for all of them to think of each other. It was clear they were always meant to be a trio rather than a duo.

**Author's Note:**

> Much love and thanks as always to Gilove2dance, my perfect beta is prefect.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [treasuring my remark](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11792991) by [ideare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideare/pseuds/ideare)




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